Screen international Aug-Sept 2014

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Issue 1777 August - September 2014

From the acclaimed screenwriter of “SO YOUNG”

LI QIANG

From the award-winning director of “A SIMPLE LIFE”

ANN HUI Starring “LUST, CAUTION”

TANG WEI

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Issue 1777 August - September 2014

Venice and Toronto

Arresting cinema ■ Ontario territory focus ■ Participant at 10 ■ Awards season positioning

LEADER

The cat’s out of the bag

I

UK office MBI, Zetland House 5-25 Scrutton Street, London EC2A 4HJ Tel: +44 (0) 20 3033 4267 US office 8581 Santa Monica Blvd, #707, West Hollywood, CA 90069 E-mail: firstname.lastname@screendaily.com (unless stated) Editorial Editor Wendy Mitchell +44 (0) 20 3033 2816 US editor Jeremy Kay +1 310 922 5908 jeremykay67@gmail.com News editor Michael Rosser +44 (0) 20 3033 2720 Chief critic and reviews editor Mark Adams +44 7841 527 505 Group head of production and art Mark Mowbray +44 (0) 20 3033 2817 Group art director, MBI Peter Gingell +44 (0) 20 3033 4203 peter.gingell@mb-insight.com Chief reporter Andreas Wiseman +44 (0) 20 3033 2848 Asia editor Liz Shackleton, lizshackleton@gmail.com Contributing editors Sarah Cooper, John Hazelton, Louise Tutt Contributing reporter Ian Sandwell Sub editor Adam Richmond Advertising and publishing Commercial director Andrew Dixon +44 (0) 20 3033 2928 Sales manager Scott Benfold +44 (0) 20 3638 5050 Sales manager Nadia Romdhani (maternity leave) UK, South Africa, Middle East Andrew Dixon +44 (0) 20 3033 2928 France, Spain, Portugal, Latin America, New Zealand, Singapore, Australia, Scott Benfold +44 (0) 20 3638 5050 Germany, Scandinavia, Benelux, eastern Europe Gunter Zerbich +44 (0) 20 3033 2930 Italy, Asia, India Ingrid Hammond +39 05 7829 8768 ingridhammond@libero.it VP business development, North America Nigel Daly +1 323 654 2301 / 213 447 5120 nigeldalymail@gmail.com US sales and business development executive Nikki Tilmouth +1 323 868 7633 nikki.screeninternational@gmail.com Production manager Jonathon Cooke +44 (0) 20 3033 4296 jonathon.cooke@mb-insight.com Group commercial director, MBI Alison Pitchford +44 (0) 20 3033 2949 alison.pitchford@mb-insight.com Subscription customer service +44 (0) 1604 828 706 help@subscribe.screendaily.com Sales administrator Justyna Zieba +44 (0) 20 3033 2694 justyna.zieba@mb-insight.com Chief executive, MBI Conor Dignam +44 (0) 20 3033 2717 conor.dignam@mb-insight.com Screen International is part of Media Business Insight Ltd (MBI), also publisher of Broadcast and shots

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Wendy Mitchell Editor

n this issue, Toronto’s Cameron Bailey tells Jeremy Kay about the festival’s change of policy for films that world premiere in Telluride (see page 36).

Telluride had said its programme, since it wasn’t pre-announced, was full of ‘sneak previews’ not world premieres.

For some it has seemed the perfect David vs Goliath story, the huge festival picking on the smaller event. But even as I think Toronto is a bit too Goliath sometimes, on this I agree that the nature of film premieres in the internet age means Telluride can’t exist in a vacuum.

I was in Venice last year waiting for the world premieres of films such as Under The Skin, yet seeing instant tweets and reviews out of Telluride. Some might have been high praise, but it took a bit of the shine off Venice’s launches.

These films were being reviewed and tweeted about elsewhere, and in the digital age you can’t say that’s a sneak preview. Once the cat’s out of the bag, you can’t stuff it back in.

Even if Telluride managed to embargo reviews from professional journalists (in itself a struggle), there’s no way to contain the ordinary punters from spreading the digital word.

I’ve never been to Telluride (can’t afford it!) but I have heard many anecdotes about what a special place it is, the welcoming vibe from a small community of film lovers that makes a film’s first showing a different experience to the Toronto behemoth. Telluride is valuable to build buzz for a film before it hits the huge Toronto programme. But let’s also be honest, the Telluride selections are usually must-see films in Toronto anyway.

What’s important is that the films and their distributors shouldn’t suffer from the politics of premiere positioning. By moving any film with a Telluride pre-

miere into a post-first-weekend slot, Toronto knows that some of the industry and critics will start to trickle out of town and miss out. But as an audience festival, Toronto will still guarantee great audiences for those ‘late’ screeners.

If Telluride wants to continue its place as a film lover’s retreat, maybe it should move after Toronto when premiere status won’t matter. That’s not a simple solution and it means Telluride’s importance would fall a bit in the calendar (although it would still be a great early awards-season platform to the 200 or so Oscar voters who turn up in Telluride).

Behind the scenes of this jostling is how we communicate about films in the modern age. It’s now common practice in Cannes to tweet a reaction to a Competition press screening before you even leave the Palais. I understand the thrill of communicating your gut response but it’s also dangerous to sum up a film’s essence or its future prospects in 140 characters or less before the credits finish rolling (and yes, I’ve been guilty of it).

It particularly galls me when a film is touted as an Oscar contender and then its chances are wiped out within minutes of a premiere. Yes, some turkeys are turkeys and should be called out by critics.

But can we stop for 60 seconds, or perhaps even a few measured hours, to consider not just a film’s awards chances, but if it was, well, any good?

What’s nice about discussing films in Toronto (or Telluride, for that matter) is that the festival isn’t competitive (aside from an audience award). Cannes can sometimes feel like punters describing horses in a race rather than films.

No matter the premiere status, or the tweet volume, let’s try to remember that it’s still all about seeing some of the best s films of the year. n

What a Fool believes My film highlight of Locarno was The Fool (reviewed on page 61), Yury Bykov’s follow-up to his Cannes Critics’ Week selection The Major. The film tells a simple yet powerful story — an honest plumber (Artem Bystrov) discovers that a social housing high rise is at risk of collapsing and has one night to convince corrupt local officials that the building has to be evacuated. It is a ticking-clock story yet, at times, has a carefully unhurried pace.

Bykov says it’s not his job to expose all the problems of modern Russia to international audiences. But he is trying to tell the story of the Russians he knows. “I’m trying to tell people about Russia, but not all Russia. It’s people in Russia living a hard life... I wanted to show these Russian people I know, and I have to do it with responsibility, love and understanding.”

The Fool’s ending is bleak, but Bykov says there was no other possibility.

“I don’t believe in happy endings. It is a tough Darwinian life, there is competition for survival. To make a happy ending would be a banality.”

The Fool

August-September 2014 Screen International 1

Contents

www.ScreenDaily.com

Issue 1777 August - September 2014

04 Venice and Toronto

Arresting cinema ■ Ontario territory focus ■ Participant at 10 ■ Awards season positioning

August-September 2014 cover image Benedict Cumberbatch in The Imitation Game, see awards preview on page 4, and for Venice and Toronto previews see pages 21 and 35 respectively

International correspondents Asia

35

10

Liz Shackleton lizshackleton@gmail.com Australia Sandy George +61 2 9557 7425 sandy.george@me.com Balkan region Vladan Petkovic +381 64 1948 948 vladan.petkovic@gmail.com Brazil Elaine Guerini +55 11 97659915 elaineguerini@terra.com.br France Melanie Goodfellow +33 6 21 45 80 27 melanie.goodfellow@btinternet.com Germany Martin Blaney +49 30 318 063 91

21

06

screen.berlin@googlemail.com Greece Alexis Grivas +30 210 64 25 261 alexisgrivas@yahoo.com Israel Edna Fainaru +972 3 5286 591 dfainaru@netvision.net.il Korea/deputy Asia editor

August-September 2014 Festival focus

Jean Noh +82 10 4205 0318 hjnoh2007@gmail.com Nordic territories Jorn Rossing Jensen +45 202 333 04 jornrossing@aol.com Scotland Allan Hunter +44 (0) 7904 698 848 allan@alhunter.myzen.co.uk Spain Juan Sarda +34 646 440 357 jsardafr@hotmail.com UK Geoffrey Macnab +44 (0) 20 7226 0516 geoffrey@macnab.demon.co.uk Subscriptions Screen International Subscriptions Department, 3 Queensbridge, The Lakes, Northampton NN4 7BF Tel +44 1604 828 706 E-mail help@subscribe.screendaily.com Screen International ISSN 0307 4617 All currencies in this issue converted according to exchange rates that applied in August 2014

2 Screen International August-September 2014

16 San Seb cracks the shell San Sebastian festival director Jose Luis Rebordinos reveals his ‘best selection’ yet

18 Zurich squares up Artistic director Karl Spoerri on the big plans for Zurich Film Festival’s 10th anniversary

21 The big hitters Venice Film Festival line-up of premieres

08 Breaking out

Feature focus

Kirk D’Amico, founder of Myriad Pictures, talks about the prestige productions in the pipeline

04 The prize fighters

10 Game changers

As Venice, Telluride and Toronto roll up, Screen examines the season’s awards contenders

Participant Media CEO Jim Berk on the company’s growth and further global expansion

63 SCREENTECH

14 A true independent MK2 founder Marin Karmitz chats about a life in film and his battle against mediocrity

22 A discovery channel

Festival Scope founders Mathilde Henrot and Alessandro Raja on the third edition of Venice VoD platform Sala Web

Regulars

Venice Film Festival director Alberto Barbera

56 Strength in diversity

A round up of the world premieres across Toronto’s impressive programme

36 festival of choice

Pictures from the National Film and Television School’s diversity gala in London

People

Territory focus

06 The Third men

51 A higher power

Samm Haillay and Ben Young on Third Films’ unusual approach to characters and production, and the outfit’s two films at Venice

A look at what’s driving the production boom in Ontario, from incentives and infrastructure to talent and global ambitions

35 Such lofty heights

Toronto artistic director Cameron Bailey

58 reviews Critical analysis of the latest films plus a selection of key Locarno titles

64 ask the experts Festival regulars share their favourite Toronto memories with Screen

www.screendaily.com

A PRODUCTION OF HUGOFILM IN COPRODUCTION WITH SCHWEIZER RADIO UND FERNSEHEN / SRG SSR “CHRIEG (WAR)“ WITH BENJAMIN LUTZKE ELLA RUMPF STE AND SASCHA GISLER CINEMATOGRAPHY LORENZ MERZ FILM EDITING CHRISTOF SCHERTENLEIB PRODUCTION DESIGN MICHAEL BAUMGARTNER COSTUME DESIGN LAURA GERSTER MAKE UP MARINA AEBI SOUND DESIGN ROLAND WIDMER CASTING LISA OLÀH PRODUCTION MANAGER FLORIAN WIDMEIER 1ST ASSISTANT DIRECTOR BEATRICE MINGER SOUND JEAN-PIERRE GERTH SCREENPLAY BY SIMON JAQUEMET PRODUCED BY CHRISTIAN DAVI CHRISTOF NERACHER THOMAS THÜMENA DIRECTED BY SIMON JAQUEMET

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EDITING

in focus awards season preview

Foxcatcher

Fury

Gone Girl

The prize fighters As Venice, Telluride and Toronto introduce a slew of prestige titles, Jeremy Kay examines the season’s possible awards contenders

R

oll the drums, roll the dice (or, for some, roll the eyeballs). The awards race is under way again, ushering in a binge of brilliance, bluster and ballgowns.

The gruelling circuit is not for the fainthearted, yet the next six months are statistically likely to deliver several dazzling movies, plenty of behind-the-scenes tales of trial over adversity and the odd breakout performance.

For these rewards alone, the marathon will be worth it — despite the irritating yearround hype by myopic awards bloggers that tests everyone’s patience.

It will be intriguing to see how everything plays out, because while very little is known at this stage, on paper it looks like the season is more auteur-heavy than in previous years.

It is by no means guaranteed that the boxoffice heroics of the crop of contenders from the past couple of years will be repeated.

Venice, Telluride and Toronto loom large.

Some films will fly high on public approval,

4 Screen International August-September 2014

On paper it looks like the season is more auteurheavy than in previous years

while others will crash and burn. Venice was the first of the trinity of autumn festivals to announce a title of significance, snagging Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s much-anticipated Birdman for the opening night world premiere on August 27.

Next up, New York Film Festival (NYFF) unleashed a powerful one-two punch. Last year the festival launched Captain Phillips and this year it has stepped up its game yet further, securing two of the most soughtafter movies of the season. The festival will kick off on September 26 with the world premiere of Fox/New Regency’s crime adaptation Gone Girl from the masterful David Fincher. It carries awards potential across the board, from Fincher to reinvented Hollywood darling Ben Affleck.

The other undisputed US auteur whose work will bow at NYFF is Paul Thomas Anderson, who landed the centrepiece slot with the first screening of his Thomas Pynchon stoner private investigator allegory

Kill The Messenger

The Judge

www.screendaily.com

Inherent Vice starring Joaquin Phoenix.

These are heavyweights and New York owns them. Venice tried to get both movies and, Screen understands, so did Toronto. New York rounded out its early salvo of announcements with a closing night North American premiere for Birdman.

“Three total home runs,” as one top awards strategist described the haul. “Three serious films by major directors and they’re not going to Toronto.”

That is saying something. In fact immediately after NYFF’s announcements, there were dark mutterings that Toronto would struggle to catch up.

That’s nonsense. Toronto may lack focus in its effort to be all things to all people, but its sheer scale guarantees heavy-hitters as well as discoveries. It can be a maddening, sprawling dynamo that bothers industry types who are there to work, but pretty much everybody gets to see movies — the point of a festival — and the public loves it.

Also, judging from Toronto’s late summer fusillade of announcements, it has landed prestige titles.

There is world premiere opener The Judge starring Robert Downey Jr; a first

The Imitation Game

Toronto’s sheer scale guarantees heavy-hitters as well as discoveries

The Theory Of Everything

LET BATTLE COMMENCE: KEY AWARDS SEASON TITLES Title

festival world premiere

us distributor

us release date

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Berlin 2014

Fox Searchlight

March 7

The Fault In Our Stars

Seattle 2014

Fox

June 6

Boyhood

Sundance 2014

IFC

July 11

The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby: Them

Cannes 2014

The Weinstein Company

Sept 12

Gone Girl

New York 2014 (opening night)

Fox

Oct 3

The Homesman

Cannes 2014

Saban Films and Roadside Attractions

Oct 3

The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby: Him And Her

Toronto 2013

The Weinstein Company

Oct 10

The Judge

Toronto 2014

Warner Bros

Oct 10

Whiplash

Sundance 2014

Sony Pictures Classics

Oct 10

Birdman

Venice 2014 (opening night)

Fox Searchlight

Oct 17

The Theory Of Everything

Toronto 2014

Focus Features

Nov 7

Paramount

Nov 7

Interstellar A Most Violent Year

A24

Nov 12

Fury

Columbia Pictures

Nov 14

Foxcatcher

Cannes 2014

Sony Pictures Classics

Nov 14

The Imitation Game

Telluride 2014

The Weinstein Company

Nov 21

Inherent Vice

New York 2014 (centrepiece)

Warner Bros

Dec 12

Warner Bros

Dec 17

The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies Mr. Turner

Cannes 2014

Big Eyes

Sony Pictures Classics

Dec 19

The Weinstein Company

Dec 25

Selma

Paramount

Dec 25

Unbroken

Universal

Dec 25

Paramount

TBC

Men, Women & Children

www.screendaily.com

Toronto 2014

showing of Jason Reitman’s Men, Women & Children and the premiere of James Marsh’s Stephen Hawking drama The Theory Of Everything.

Noah Baumbach’s While We’re Young is an acquisition title and may not land a 2014 release, but everybody will want to see it. A healthy international contingent showcases world premieres of Francois Ozon’s The New Girlfriend and former Oscar winner Susanne Bier’s A Second Chance, among others.

The best of the rest The Weinstein Company’s The Imitation Game starring Benedict Cumberbatch will open BFI London Film Festival on October 8 and receives a Canadian premiere in Toronto, suggesting a world premiere slot at Telluride.

Fox Searchlight’s Reese Witherspoon drama Wild may also screen in the Rockies before hiking up to Toronto a few days later.

In spring, the Toronto leadership, riled by years of unofficial sneak previews of its world premieres at Telluride, delivered distributors an ultimatum.

From now on, Toronto will only open coveted first-weekend slots to undisputed world or North American premieres. Everything else rolls into the second week.

“We would present what we called the world premiere or the North American premiere in Toronto, but after all that excitable coverage [by the media from Telluride] had already happened before we got up on stage, it began to feel silly,” artistic director Cameron Bailey told Screen (see page 36).

Foxcatcher and Mr. Turner both play at Toronto and are already known quantities.

They will find their champions in the awards season, as will other admired films such as The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby (a Toronto premiere last year that had a Cannes berth in May), The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Homesman, Boyhood and possibly Whiplash.

Apart from the inevitable surprises that will pop up, a handful of titles have not as far as we know landed festival berths. Werner Herzog’s Queen Of The Desert will not be ready for Telluride or Toronto due to technical delays.

Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken, David Ayers’ Fury, Ava DuVernay’s Selma and JC Chandor’s A Most Violent Year are all fourth-quarter releases that may find their way to AFI FEST, which kicks off on November 6.

The Jeremy Renner thriller Kill The Messenger opens through Focus in October.

Meanwhile nobody seems to know what has become of Susanne Bier’s much-delayed English-language drama Serena starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper.

Finally, it has been arguably a decade since Clint Eastwood has delivered a cracker and Warner Bros has set a December 25 limited debut for American Sniper. Will that be a brils liant late arrival to the party? ■

August-September 2014 Screen International 5

Interview third films

‘We all said Venice’s Biennale College was the best creative experience of our lives’ Ben Young, Third Films

Bypass

The Third men Samm Haillay and Ben Young tell Wendy Mitchell about Third Films’ unusual approach to characters and production, and the outfit’s two films in Venice

H

ow does a tiny UK production company land two films in Venice in one year? By doing things differently, says Third Films producer Samm Haillay.

Haillay, who founded the Newcastle-based company with artist-director Duane Hopkins in 2001, says: “We do strive to have a slightly different approach. If you want to make a different end product, your process has to be different… We’re on the lookout for interesting, engaged film-makers who want to do films in a slightly unusual way.”

He continues: “In a way, being outside of London has helped us to retain some kind of investigation of how we do things, of finding our own path.”

That includes getting big value on screen from challenging budgets, as with the two Venice films — Hopkins’ Bypass and Joseph Bull and Luke Seomore’s Blood Cells. Neither fit a typical formula of finance or production, as Haillay explains: “We don’t do what industry norms dictate; it’s not just, ‘You’ve got a 20-week edit and that’s it.’”

It is an approach that has been rewarded — the company was one of 20 to get a BFI Vision Award in May 2013, with $85,000 (£50,000) to support growth. The team includes Andrew McVicar as a pivotal creative producer (he is also a writer-director).

All of the current work builds on Hopkins’ debut feature Better Things landing a slot in Critics’ Week at Cannes in 2008. “Alongside looking to develop a new project for Duane, we wanted to try to build the company into

6 Screen International August-September 2014

‘We’re doing things on our terms, and people seem to want to know more’ Samm Haillay, Third Films

something that wasn’t just a vehicle for his work… to look for other film-makers who we feel can work in the same sort of place we do.” The work is cultural film-making that does not easily tick genre boxes.

Hopkins’ second feature, Bypass, is one such genre meld, a ticking-clock morality tale about a young man (George MacKay) driven to extremes because of poverty. The $1.7m (£1m) production, a UK-Sweden co-production with Ruben Ostlund’s Plattform Produktion, shot for an envious nine weeks.

“People’s jaws drop when I say we shot for nine weeks for a million quid. They ask, ‘How did you do that?’ By not shooting in London!” says Haillay of the film, which shot across north-east England.

Back to college Blood Cells was a different kind of challenge.

Haillay and Hopkins had met Bull and Seomore after their documentary Isolation screened in Edinburgh in 2009; Haillay thought their next project would be a good fit

Venice titles ■ Bypass

Dir: Duane Hopkins (Venice Days)

George MacKay stars in this character-driven thriller set against the economic downturn in contemporary Britain.

Partners include the BFI, Film Agency Wales, Torino FilmLab, Film i Vast, Swedish Film Institute, SVT and international sales company The Match Factory.

■ Blood Cells Dirs: Joseph Bull and Luke Seomore (Biennale College)

Barry Ward (pictured) stars as a long-exiled man on a road trip across the UK to visit his estranged brother. Partners include Biennale College and Picturehouse.

for Third collaborator Ben Young who, like Haillay, is a lecturer at Teesside University.

Young came on board as one of the producers of Blood Cells in addition to writing the project with Bull and Seomore.

The film is a hypnotic road movie starring Barry Ward (Jimmy’s Hall) as a man travelling across the UK to see his estranged brother, a decade after their family farm was devastated by foot-and-mouth disease. “It does examine the inner lives of people who popular culture doesn’t tend to engage with in substantive ways,” says Young. “There’s an unapologetic embrace of landscape, emotion and transcendence that you don’t find in a lot of British cinema, and yet the film has its feet firmly on the ground in that clear and credible way that British film-makers do better than almost anyone else.”

With a budget of only $210,000 (£125,000), the team took a very lean crew on a four-week shoot — half in London and half on the road in the likes of Essex, Morecambe, rural Lancashire, Birmingham, north Wales and all the motorways in between.

Venice’s Biennale College was a key piece of the puzzle in getting the film made — it was one of 12 titles shortlisted for the second edition of the College, and one of three finalists to receive funding. “It got the film made but it’s not just a production grant,” says Young. “We knew it wasn’t just a lab with some vague notions. This is brass tacks and real in a very professional way, and there were amazing mentors… We all said it was the best creative experience of our lives.”

Up next The company has two more films in post, Light Years by feature debutante Esther May Campbell, about an eight-year-old girl searching for her mother (played by musician Beth Orton). The Match Factory, which represents Bypass, will also handle sales on Light Years.

Third is also involved in Mark Cousins’ “love letter to DH Lawrence”, 6 Desires: DH Lawrence And Sardinia. Plus, Hopkins is cowriting his next film with McVicar, among other projects in development.

“We’re doing things our way and on our terms, and people seem to want to know more.

We’re blown away that people are interesting in what we’re doing,” Haillay sums up. “It’s about the work we put in and the viewpoint s we have on the world around us.” n

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VENICE Venezia 71 Competition: THE CUT by Fatih Akin Venice Classics: FROM CALIGARI TO HITLER by Rüdiger Suchsland International Film Critics’ Week: THE COUNCIL OF BIRDS by Timm Kröger

TO RO N TO Special Presentations: PHOENIX by Christian Petzold HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS by Peter Chelsom Contemporary World Cinema: LABYRINTH OF LIES by Giulio Ricciarelli MEET ME IN MONTENEGRO by Alex Holdridge & Linnea Saasen TOUR DE FORCE by Christian Zübert WHO AM I - NO SYSTEM IS SAFE by Baran bo Odar Wavelengths: LE BEAU DANGER by René Frölke SEA OF VAPORS by Sylvia Schedelbauer Short Cuts International: (NULL) by David Gesslbauer & Michael Lange

SAN SEBASTIAN Official Selection Competition: PHOENIX by Christian Petzold New Directors’ Competition: LIMBO by Anna Sofie Hartmann

Bringing the best new films from Germany to the world.

www.german-films.de

Interview Myriad Pictures

‘‘T

here’s been small evolutions and big evolutions over the last few years,” says Myriad Pictures president and CEO Kirk D’Amico as he looks back on the company’s 15-year history.

The Santa Monica-based production, financing and sales outfit has long established itself as a purveyor of quality content with the likes of Kinsey and The Good Girl, and has recently elevated its profile even further.

Myriad championed Margin Call back in 2011; the Oscar-nominated Wall Street story launched the career of JC Chandor and grossed more than $19.5m worldwide, not including a whopping $6m VoD tally that made headlines.

D’Amico also sold international territories on the 2011 Canadian comedy Goon starring Seann William Scott, which tickled audiences at Toronto in 2011, amassed more than $6.5m globally and was a big hit across digital platforms through US distributor Magnet Releasing.

D’Amico says, “We’ve become more involved and selective in what we’re doing with the likes of Margin Call and The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby.”

The latter, Ned Benson’s dual-perspective relationship saga, wowed critics in Toronto last year and inspired Harvey Weinstein and his cohorts to stump up for US, Canadian, UK and French rights.

Weinstein got a new, single cut of the film — The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby: Them — into Un Certain Regard in Cannes in May, where it earned a 10-minute standing ovation and sparked Oscar buzz for the leads.

The road to Rigby The response on the Croisette was the latest development in what has been a long road for D’Amico, starting with pre-sales at the EFM in Berlin 2012.

“One of the things that gets lost when people talk about it [Eleanor Rigby] is how much time is spent putting the film together and I don’t just mean finding the script and making the deal,” he says.

“It took us many months to lock in the cast. When it came to us it was originally Jessica Chastain and Joel Edgerton. We took this film to Berlin and made pre-sales and over the spring Joel was on the fence and there was an opportunity to get James McAvoy on board and we jumped at the opportunity. We were involved at the script stage. We did presales and tax credits and brought in half the equity through Dreambridge [Films].”

Finding valuable source material is key to D’Amico’s strategy of aligning with projects that set Myriad apart. “We work very well with all the agencies. The co-ordination between US and international is a lot of work.

“As a company that’s not aligned with any particular capital source we still have to cobble the films together, but we’re building relationships and the financiers are more and more comfortable dealing with us.”

8 Screen International August-September 2014

October Gale

Breaking out Kirk D’Amico, founder of Myriad Pictures, tells Jeremy Kay about the move into Canadian distribution and prestige productions in the pipeline

Robert Carlyle (right) directs Ray Winstone in The Legend Of Barney Thomson

‘We’re building relationships and the financiers are more and more comfortable dealing with us’ Kirk D’Amico, Myriad Pictures

D’Amico, who prior to Myriad served as executive vice-president of international sales at Village Roadshow and vice-president of international at the Samuel Goldwyn Company, has a soft spot for Canada.

The Vancouver-based distributor Pacific Northwest Pictures (PNP) launched in 2010, and is headed by D’Amico’s wife and majority owner Zanne Devine, also a veteran producer. Myriad owns a minority stake.

The distributor aims to release seven or eight titles a year and will up the ante to 10-12 starting in 2015. PNP also enjoys strong ties with Telefilm Canada and Quebec-based television network TVA, which releases most PNP films in French-speaking Canada.

“PNP is a fully fledged theatrical distribution company where a lot of the back-room stuff is supported out of Los Angeles,” says D’Amico. “It turned a corner this year as a distributor. We released Le Week-end, which did very well.

“We will have one or more of our films in

Toronto including October Gale [directed by Cairo Time’s Ruba Nadda] starring Patricia Clarkson, which we got involved in at script stage.” PNP releases in Canada and Myriad handles international sales. Myriad’s Ruth & Alex, starring Diane Keaton and Morgan Freeman, will play as a Gala screening.

The roster will feature roughly 40% Canadian co-productions a year. Upcoming releases include Kelly Reichardt’s Night Moves in August and Juliette Binoche starrer A Thousand Times Goodnight.

“We just wrapped on Robert Carlyle’s The Legend Of Barney Thomson that shot primarily in Glasgow and stars Carlyle, Ray Winstone and Emma Thompson. We’re the Canadian distributor and Myriad has world sales outside of Canada,” he adds. “We will not necessarily always handle sales on a Pacific Northwest release. Cas & Dylan is an example of something that we’re releasing in Canada [but not selling internationally].”

Returning to Myriad, upcoming projects that D’Amico is getting excited about include The Keys To The Street, a UK-Germany erotic thriller and Ruth Rendell adaptation to star Gemma Arterton, Tim Roth and Max Irons.

Producers Steve Norris of Pinewood Films and Gail Mutrux are lining up for a possible spring start.

The pipeline also includes Caught Stealing set to star Patrick Wilson. Wayne Kramer will direct the South Africa-Canada crime caper adapted by David Hayter.

D’Amico continues to forge new relationships and search for new treasures. “People think of Myriad as a company that every year or two has a break-out film. They cannot s afford not to pay attention to us.” n

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he leadership at Participant Media prefers a low profile, but heading into Toronto with three films in selection and a 10th anniversary party scheduled, it is difficult to look away.

Imminent premieres of animation Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, professional sceptics documentary Merchants Of Doubt and one other Toronto title — to be confirmed after Screen goes to press — illustrate the broad reach of Participant’s film ambitions and hint at what is to come. (Sony Pictures Classics acquired world rights to Merchants Of Doubt in the run-up to its world premiere in Telluride and the Toronto screening.)

CEO Jim Berk, tall and wiry-haired, meets Screen in the lobby of the company’s Beverly Hills headquarters. A former educator, CEO of Hard Rock Cafe International and head of publicly traded resort specialists Fairfield Communities among other posts, he is outgoing and professorial.

Berk is the man whom Jeff Skoll, the Participant founder, eBay billionaire and philanthropist, hired in 2006 to take the company to the next level. Berk’s is the face that Hollywood sees. At a party in Cannes earlier this year, it was Berk who greeted guests warmly while Skoll stayed back slightly, smiling.

As he leads the way to his office he mentions early August release The Hundred-Foot Journey. The film stars Helen Mirren and marks the company’s 55th film. It shot in India, like Participant hit The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and its 2015 sequel, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, hinting at a bright future.

Participant has forged relationships with every major studio, launched a finance fund with Image Nation Abu Dhabi, nurtured thriving divisions such as the Pivot TV network, TakePart online portal and social action team and set its sights on global expansion.

On the last point, Screen understands a second major international initiative after Participant Pan America is about to be unveiled. “This year alone we’ll greenlight a dozen narrative and documentary films and we expect that pace to continue and expand as we look into international territories,” says Berk.

“What we want to do is replicate what we do in the United States in other parts of the world,” he continues. “We’ve started to tiptoe in with the establishment of Participant Pan America, which was born out of our success on [Chilean Oscar nominee] No and we looked at the Spanish-speaking market and recognised there was an opportunity to support a film-making community that was very robust.

“The first slate we’ve committed to over the next five years is 12-15 films.” The first title to emerge from the alliance with Mexico’s Canana, Colombia’s Dynamo and Chile’s Fabula — Berk calls it a “United Artists

10 Screen International August-September 2014

Laurie Sparham

Interview Participant Media

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Game changers As Participant Media celebrates 10 years and 55 films, Jeremy Kay talks to CEO Jim Berk about the company’s growth and further global expansion approach of production” — was Cannes selection El Ardor. They expect to announce the second shortly.

For a company that employs about 250 people across offices in Los Angeles, New York and Washington DC, Participant packs a punch. Skoll’s deep pockets and the leadership expertise of Berk and an executive roster that includes documentary guru Diane Weyermann and narrative films head Jonathan King provides know-how and enables flexibility.

“Every film is different,” says Berk. “We’ve taken 100% of films; we’ve taken 25% of films. We’ve been the lead production entity; we’ve been just a financing entity. We’ve been a co-distribution partner like we did on Middle Of Nowhere or [acquisition titles] Internet’s Own Boy or Ivory Tower. It’s a mix.”

Simple P&A plays are rare but not out of the question. The chief goal is to invest early in projects. “We come from a viewpoint that we’re willing to put our money side-by-side with others. This idea of everybody having

‘This year alone we’ll greenlight a dozen narrative and doc films and we expect that pace to continue’ Jim Berk, Participant

skin in the game is worthwhile and applies to us too.”

On Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, for example, Participant is one of the financiers, along with Doha Film Institute, Code Red Productions, FFA Private Bank, mygroup, and Financiere Pinault, whose director FrancoisHenri Pinault is married to the film’s producer Salma Hayek.

“Participant was founded on the basis of the double bottom line, which is financial success like any other for-profit media company and social impact,” he says. “We look at things through a dual lens so if a movie is successful and has social impact, that’s the highest level success.

“But a movie can also have social impact and not be as successful — sometimes documentaries spark policy changes at the federal level but they might not have been big box-office hits, like Last Call At The Oasis or A Place At The Table, which were seen by the right people and led to national change.”

A Place At The Table inspired the West Vir-

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The Hundred-Foot Journey

‘The media business, more than many others, deals in cycles. There’s a low threshold for not having a financial success’ Jim Berk, Participant

UPCOMING SLATE ■ Misconception Jessica

Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet

A Place At The Table

ginia Feed To Achieve Act, which changed policy on school breakfasts. Middle Of Nowhere spurred the Federal Communications Commission to issue new guidelines on exorbitant ‘predatory phone rates’ in US prisons.

“We greenlight films that are really good stories,” says Berk. “Without that it doesn’t matter what the issue is — we’re not doing the film… We just have that additional filter of saying, ‘OK can this film in success create a conversation, change personal behaviour, raise awareness?’

“Jeff ’s interest is in creating a sustainable asset and creating value in that piece, so it’s allowed us to be bolder, to be innovative and take what we call ‘smart chances’.”

Lincoln and The Help are cases in point.

“Virtually every studio passed [on The Help].

DreamWorks was kind of the last stop.

Nobody saw a movie like that would have international appeal for a lot of good reasons — African-American film, period piece, not starring one of the half-a-dozen bankable big stars and a first-time director for a film of that size.”

Lincoln garnered two Oscars including best actor for Daniel Day-Lewis and grossed $275m worldwide, while The Help finished on $216m worldwide and scored a best supporting actress Oscar for Octavia Spencer.

the risk-averse Hollywood zeitgeist really gets him going and he hoists himself up in his chair, sitting cross-legged.

He says that Skoll’s role as a hands-off yet involved benefactor creates a culture devoid of insecurity. “The media business, more than many others, deals in cycles, seasons, box-office years. There’s a fairly low threshold for not having a financial success.

“When you have private ownership in a company with no debt, no bankers, you’re in a very clear alignment with the mission of the person who is the owner of the company, you’re in a very unique position. He’s dealing in decades… It’s about building towards a larger goal.”

He first met Skoll in 2006 after a headhunter came knocking. “I came out and met him and in the first 10 minutes I thought, ‘This guy’s real.’ In the second 20 minutes I thought, ‘I love this guy.’

He’s a very unassuming guy and I realised he really wanted to do this, to create something.”

Participant Productions, as it was called (the change to Participant Media would come in

a growing remit Berk thinks and speaks quickly, rattling off titles and deal points as his enthusiasm for a subject takes hold. Participant’s defiance of

Participant co-distributed Middle Of Nowhere

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Yu’s population-growth documentary ■ A Most Violent Year JC Chandor’s crime drama (US release November 12 by A24) ■ The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel John Madden’s sequel will be released by Fox Searchlight on March 6, 2015 ■ El Ardor Pablo Fendrik’s Argentinian dramatic thriller premiered in Cannes; Gael Garcia Bernal stars ■ Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet Producer Salma Hayek presented the animated omnibus film as a work in progress at Cannes; it plays as a Special Presentation in Toronto ■ Beasts Of No Nation Cary Fukunaga’s childsoldier drama stars Idris Elba; Focus Features will release in 2015 ■ Malala Davis Guggenheim documentary about Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai ■ A Monster Calls JA Bayona’s fantasy film starring Liam Neeson; Focus Features will release in 2016 ■ Deepwater Horizon JC Chandor is to direct the oil-rig explosion story; Summit/ Lionsgate to release

January 2008) had been going for 18 months and burst out of the gates with Good Night, And Good Luck; Syriana; North Country and An Inconvenient Truth.

“It started in the back of [now Focus Features CEO] Peter Schlessel’s office and when I came on I was the 17th employee. Jeff had this mission and said he was an entrepreneur who starts things and brings in professional management to grow them and he focuses on the big picture.

“He wanted it to be the most successful media company in the world, focused on entertainment that inspires and compels social change.”

The company’s first iteration was as a financier. With Berk on board, the remit grew. “Over the years we kept expanding the film piece of it,” he says. “We started our own productions, we launched our digital portal, we formed a social impact and marketing group and we started investing in businesses that could drive our strategy.”

One such move came in April 2007 when Participant Media became the largest individual equity investor in Summit Entertainment. The vampires of Twilight served them well and it was only the very favourable terms of the Lionsgate takeover in 2012 that convinced Skoll, Berk and co to relinquish their stake.

Participant moved into television last year with the Pivot network and has been an active media investor, acquiring positions in Canada’s Cineflix Media and tech mogul Oliver Luckett’s social media start-up theAudience.

At the start of the summer, Participant joined a $350m fund backed by TPG Growth and Evolution Media Capital to make strategic investments in global entities.

Global reach International expansion is a priority. “One thing we always do in international markets is look for partners because we have no expectation that we have the expertise, sensitivity from a cultural standpoint or business and operations standpoint to be able to understand what a market’s like.

“We expect that Pan America is also going to be Pan Europe and Pan Arabia and Pan Asia and again the idea that these are films from and for those areas.” When pressed on timelines, Berk says he hopes to be in a new territory “in the next two years”.

He declines to go into detail but offers tantalising commentary along the way. “Could I envision we have offices in Mexico City and China? Absolutely?” Later he adds: “I could easily see us doing eight, 10 films a year across all of Europe. I could easily see us doing two or three Indian films a year, I could see us doing the same in the Middle East, Asia.”

Will there be an imminent announcement? For the first time, Berk is tongue-tied, his silence as eloquent as anything he has s said all day. ■

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Interview Marin Karmitz

A true independent As MK2 celebrates its 40th anniversary, Melanie Goodfellow talks to founder Marin Karmitz about his life in film, the battle against mediocrity and creative relationships with Godard, Kieslowski and Kiarostami

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irector of a trio of politically militant features in his 20s, producer of scores of world-renowned filmmakers, founder of the MK2 production company and cinema circuit, and, in later years, outspoken adviser to France’s Ministry of Culture, film industry veteran Marin Karmitz has worn many hats in his long and varied career.

This year, the man who arrived in France aged nine, on a refugee boat with his family in 1947, is celebrating the 40th anniversary of MK2, the country’s third biggest cinema chain.

“The boat travelled all over the Mediterranean, looking for a place to dock,” recalls Karmitz, whose Jewish family had owned a successful pharmaceutical empire in Romania before the Second World War. “We were finally allowed to alight in Marseilles. I think it was my parents’ real desire to go to France, especially my mother. She spoke good French and was a great admirer of French culture. It was her dream.”

Karmitz says that his own experience of persecution and exile as child and teenager have marked his activities throughout his life.

“My personal story is very mixed up with the films I wanted to direct, produce or distribute,” he says. “Everything I’ve done has been in part a struggle against barbarism, against extremism and fascism, against kill-

Marin Karmitz on the 1969 shoot of Camarades

14 Screen International August-September 2014

ing and exclusion — an attempt to explore what it means to be human and be conscious of being human.”

The first blow Karmitz originally entered the film industry with directorial ambitions. After studying at France’s prestigious La Fémis film school (then known as IDHEC), he gained experience as assistant director to Pierre Kast, Agnes Varda and Jean-Luc Godard.

In his early 20s, he made a series of shorts and then a trio of features — Sept Jours Ailleurs, Camarades and Blow For Blow (Coup Pour Coup) — all of which had a strong militant socialist message in keeping with the political mood of the late 1960s.

It was Blow For Blow — about a group of female textile workers who ignore union advice and take their factory boss hostage in protest over sweatshop conditions — that would lead Karmitz into the world of exhibition. The docu-drama, featuring some reallife textile workers, did not win Karmitz many friends in post-1968 France.

“It shocked both the establishment and the unions. The latter were used to being the interlocutors between the workers and the bosses, but after 1968 a lot of workers didn’t want them anymore,” says Karmitz. “The film showed this and they didn’t like it.”

Blow For Blow was shut out of France’s mainstream cinema circuits and Karmitz

‘Everything I have done has been in part a struggle against barbarism, against extremism and fascism, against killing and exclusion’ Marin Karmitz, MK2

was blacklisted. He toured the film himself, screening it in makeshift venues across France.

It was this experience that convinced Karmitz he should open an independent cinema to show the sort of anti-establishment films he was making at the time. Fittingly, he found a small venue just off French Revolution landmark Place de la Bastille in Paris, which he renamed Le 14-Juillet Bastille.

Karmitz’s socialist convictions fed into how he set up and ran the venue.

“I wanted it to be a space in which cinema would act as a platform for other forms of creation such as painting, music and photography. We held debates and even installed a small library and exhibition space,” says Karmitz. It was the beginning of a model that remains at the heart of the MK2 ethos and has since been emulated by countless other cinema chains.

“I was convinced a cinema, and the way it was used as a space, could change a neighbourhood,” he continues.

Karmitz finally tested this theory with the opening of MK2 Le Quai de Seine multiplex near Place de la Bataille-de-Stalingrad in north-east Paris in 1996. At the time it was an impoverished area known as the drugs supermarket of the French capital. But the beautiful old venue was situated in a refurbished building designed by Gustave Eiffel and quickly became a catalyst for neighbourhood

MK2 Le Quai de Seine cinema

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(Clockwise from left) Marin Karmitz with film-makers Claude Chabrol, Krzysztof Kieslowski and Alain Resnais

change. The past 15 years has seen the rapidly gentrifying area undergo an urban renewal programme. The cinema itself has become a textbook example of exactly what Karmitz was dreaming of when he took over the tiny Le 14-Juillet Bastille in 1974: the 12-screen Le Quai de Seine’s programme combines mainstream blockbuster fare with arthouse titles as well as special events around niche sectors such as children’s films and documentaries.

The venue also boasts a cinema-focused book and DVD shop as well as a restaurant and café. It welcomed 1.2 million spectators in 2012.

Strong showing Four decades on from the opening of Le 14-Juillet Bastille, MK2 is now the third biggest exhibition circuit in France, controlling 11 cinemas with 65 screens in Paris as well as four smaller high-end cinemas available for private hire. And the company recently made its first foray outside France with the acquisition of Cinesur, Spain’s third biggest chain.

As well as building the MK2 circuit, Karmitz is known internationally as one of France’s most prolific arthouse producers.

He has produced for 50-plus film-makers including Abbas Kiarostami, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Jean-Luc Godard, the Taviani brothers, Michael Haneke, Claude Chabrol, Hiner Saleem and Raphael Nadjari.

“I’ve always seen my role as making visible what was invisible. It’s a complicated process,” he says, citing Louis Malle’s Au Revoir Les Enfants, Godard’s Every Man For Himself (Sauve Qui Peut) and Chabrol’s Poulet Au Vinaigre as films that may not have made it to

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the big screen without his support. “These are films that were refused by everyone but went on to be hits,” Karmitz says. “Sometimes you have to fight against mediocrity and banality and not get too comfortable. It’s that which kills creativity.”

A colourful collaborator One of Karmitz’s most creative collaborations was with the late Kieslowski, whose Three Colours trilogy Karmitz produced.

“I put the same amount of energy and emotional charge into every film I produce,” Karmitz says. “It’s the human relationships, the adventures I have with the directors that have been important. I had a strong relationship with Kieslowski — I didn’t feel like producing any more after he died — and more recently with Kiarostami these last 10 years.”

In 2005, Karmitz handed over control of the day-to-day running of his company to sons Nathanael and Elisha. Nathanael is CEO while Elisha is the head of MK2 Agency, which specialises in events, consulting, publishing and advertising.

“The boys are both passionate about the business and capable. If that had not been the case, I would have sold up,” says Karmitz. “We learn a lot from one another.

I try to teach them everything that I’ve learned over the years but they teach me a lot of new stuff too.”

He cites MK2’s Cinema Paradiso event in June 2013 — held in the Grand Palais exhibition space at the end of the Champs Elysées in Paris and which was masterminded by Elisha — as something he would never have been capable of pulling off. The drive-in themed operation featuring screenings, dance nights, champagne soirées and restau-

A life in film ■ 1957 Attends France’s

prestigious La Fémis film school (then IDHEC) ■ 1962 Works as AD on Agnes Varda’s Cléo From 5 To 7 ■ 1966-67 Directs his first feature, Sept Jours Ailleurs ■ 1972 Third feature Blow For Blow is shut out of mainstream circuits ■ 1974 Opens his first theatre, Le 14-Juillet Bastille ■ 1985 Produces first film with Claude Chabrol, Poulet Au Vinaigre ■ 1989 Meets Krzysztof Kieslowski, whose Three Colours trilogy he would go on to produce ■ 1996 Opens the MK2 Le Quai de Seine multiplex in north-east Paris ■ 2003 Opens MK2 Bibliotheque multiplex ■ 2005 Hands over reins of MK2 empire to sons Nathanael and Elisha ■ 2014 The MK2 circuit comprises 11 screens with 65 cinemas. The company expands into Spain with the Cinesur chain.

MK2’s Cinema Paradiso event in Paris

rants drew some 80,000 people over 10 days.

“I was over in America recently and people who’d seen it or read about it were blown away by the concept,” says Karmitz.

In February 2013, the company closed down its distribution division and signed a servicing deal with Diaphana Films. It also announced it was pulling out of production following the disappointing box-office performance of films including On The Road and Like Someone In Love.

Karmitz says the company will get back into production but in a different way. The international sales operation remains strong.

“At the time we were losing our identity, producing and acquiring too many films just to feed the distribution machine,” he says.

“We decided to stop everything in order to return to basics. We will continue to support directors that we like — either through taking on international sales, co-producing or backing in some way — but in a more focused way. s “We’ve gone back to our roots.” n

August-September 2014 Screen International 15

©San Sebastian Film Festival. Photo: Inaki Pardo

FESTIVAL FOCUS SAN SEBASTIAN

San Seb cracks the shell San Sebastian festival director Jose Luis Rebordinos tells Juan Sarda about his ‘best selection’ yet, including an Antonio Banderas sci-fi film, international hits and Latin American gems

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he 62nd edition of San Sebastian Film Festival (September 19-27) will again showcase its many facets — as an open door to Europe for some of the highest profile titles from Toronto, linking the Latin American and European industries, and acting as the biggest platform for the year’s key Spanish films.

One of the busiest editions in recent history will be marked by visits from Francois Ozon, Susanne Bier and Christian Petzold, along with leading Spanish directors including Alberto Rodriguez. Antonio Banderas, meanwhile, brings his sci-fi project Automata, directed by Gabe Ibanez.

“I am sure that in my four years as director of the festival, this is the best selection,” says festival director Jose Luis Rebordinos. “There are more films than usual because we could get better titles this time.” He says the festival does not try to compete with Toronto, rather to offer those films a European premiere.

“This is the best formula for the films and for us. In San Sebastian, those titles will have a second chance and will be seen by hundreds of journalists and critics. They gain this stamp of quality that San Sebastian gives, might take the Golden Shell and there are also quite a lot of industry players over here.”

Rebordinos is passionate about this year’s Official Selection: “There are very strong films that deal with controversial and powerful issues. We have a wonderful and brutal thriller from Susanne Bier, A Second Chance, that will really shock the audience; a fascinating new title by Francois Ozon, The New Girlfriend, about transvestism that only he could have presented so cleverly; and thriller Haemu, a great debut by Memories Of Murder screenwriter Shim Sung-bo. And we are very proud of films like The Drop by Michael Roskam,

16 Screen International August-September 2014

which features the last performance by James Gandolfini; or Voice Over, a Chilean comedy directed by Cristian Jimenez that is a jewel.”

Another highlight is Samba, the new film

by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano after the huge international success of Intouchables.

Guests in attendance will include Donostia Award winner Denzel Washington with The Equaliser, John Malkovich with Casanova Variations and Willem Dafoe with Pasolini.

Supporting talent San Sebastian also wants to foster the careers of young film-makers. Rebordinos points to the New Directors section, in which Olivier Assayas, Danny Boyle, Juan Jose Campanella and Isabel Coixet screened their first films.

“Talent hunters should take a close look because every year we find great promise.”

Among the Spanish selections, there are high expectations around the sophomore effort by Carlos Vermut after the critical success of Diamond Flash. “Magical Girl, his new

‘We have always had a lot of industry people but we needed to join them in a clearer way’ Jose Luis Rebordinos, San Sebastian Film Festival

CO-PRODUCTION FORUM SELECTIONS 2014 ■ Aire Libre Dir Anahi Berneri (Arg) ■ Claria Dir Luis Angel Ramirez (Sp-Mex) ■ Cuando Los Caballos Aprendieron A

Llorar Dir Nicolas Pereda (Mex-Sp) ■ Chico Ventana Tambien Quisiera

Tener Un Submarino Dir Alex Piperno (Arg-Uru) ■ El Elefante Desaparecido Dir Javier Fuentes-Leon (Per-Col-Sp) ■ El Escuadron De La Muerte-Una Comedia Dir Jayro Bustamante (Guat) ■ Las Malcogidas Dir Denisse Arancibia (Bol) ■ Mi Amiga Del Parque Dir Ana Katz (Arg)

■ O Homem Que Matou Minha Amada

Morta Dir Aly Muritiba (Bra) ■ El Palomar Dir Daniel Hendler (Uru) ■ Pensé Que Iba A Haber Fiesta

Dir Victoria Galardi (Arg) ■ Pieta Dir Inaki Elizalde (Sp) ■ La Puta Realidad Dir Gabriela

Calvache (Ecu) ■ Que Viva La Musica! Dir Carlos

Moreno (Col) ■ Sexo Facil Y Peliculas Tristes

Dir Alejo Flah (Sp-Arg) ■ Sin Memoriam Dir David David (Col) ■ Tuya Dir Edgardo Gonzalez (Arg)

title, is a big step forward. It’s a very good thriller with the capacity of gaining a much broader audience than his first film.”

Ibanez’s Automata is also a second film, a $50m sci-fi title produced by and starring Banderas, about a robot conspiracy to take over the world.

Another second feature is Flowers (Loreak)

by Jon Garano and Jose Mari Goneaga, a drama about different generations of women. Out of competition, Golden Shell winner Isaki Lacuesta will screen Murieron Por Encima De Sus Posibilidades, a black comedy about a gang of losers who kidnap the chairman of the Bank of Spain.

Industry connections Under Rebordinos’s watch, the festival’s industry activities have been gathered under the Industry Club umbrella and expanded significantly. “We have always had a lot of industry people here but we needed to join them in a clearer way,” he explains. The threeday Co-Production Forum, now in its third edition, will welcome more than 1,200 guests.

“It’s our greatest achievement. In the last few years there are 30% more people from the industry,” he says. Some 17 projects (see box) will be presented to international producers.

The industry activities this year also include a Canadian delegation seeking Spanish partners.

The influential Films in Progress section will celebrate its 12th edition, presenting unfinished South American projects. “We share the Spanish language with South America and it’s natural that we have a close bond.”

The Horizontes Latinos section also strengthens those ties. Rebordinos says: “We are a big reference for artists and producers of s those countries and that is going to grow.” ■

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Babesle Ofizialak - Patrocinadores Oficiales

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Babesle Ofizialak - Patrocinadores Oficiales

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FESTIVAL FOCUS ZURICH

to a domestic first, second or third work. Further support for the Swiss industry comes with the return of the Treatment Award. Now in its second year, it invites writers to submit a feature film treatment with a strong link to Switzerland on the theme of civil courage. The winner will receive a $5,500 (CHF5,000) cash prize and a contribution of $28,000 (CHF25,000) towards screenplay development.

Harrison Ford at Zurich’s 2013 edition; (Inset) an artist’s impression of the festival centre on the city’s new Sechseläutenplatz

Zurich squares up Artistic director Karl Spoerri talks to Michael Rosser about big plans for Zurich Film Festival’s 10th anniversary, including a new festival centre

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elebrating its 10th edition, this year’s Zurich Film Festival (September 25-October 5) looks set to be the biggest to date.

“It’s our 10th anniversary so we want to make a big splash with audiences through our line-up of great films,” says Karl Spoerri, ZFF’s artistic director and co-director, with Nadja Schildknecht.

“For the first time we will have a great festival centre in the heart of the square, which has reopened after being under construction for two years. It’s a beautiful setting and was finished just in time,” says Spoerri of the 16,000 sq m Sechseläutenplatz.

Spoerri was one of the festival founders in October 2005, when the three-day event focused on debuts and attracted 8,000 visitors. It has experienced the occasional hiccup over the years, such as Roman Polanski’s high-profile arrest while on his way to collect an award at the 2009 festival.

But last year’s edition recorded 71,000 visitors, 122 film titles and 450 guests, including A-list actors and industry figures such as Hugh Jackman, Melissa Leo, Harrison Ford and Harvey Weinstein.

“Zurich is the perfect festival to launch a film in the German-language market,” says Spoerri. “It fits perfectly into the festival calendar and is very convenient to get to from around the world. Plus, we’re a very audience-friendly festival.”

ZFF’s partnership with San Sebastian Film Festival (September 19-27) will continue, with each hosting a window dedicated to

18 Screen International August-September 2014

films from their respective countries rather than competing for titles.

While the full programme was under wraps as Screen went to press, the first tranche of gala screenings have been revealed. These include David Gordon Green’s Manglehorn, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Birdman and Fatih Akin’s The Cut, which will debut at Venice. Other titles include Frederick Wiseman’s National Gallery and Alice Rohrwacher’s The Wonders, both of which played at Cannes; Israel Horovitz’s My Old Lady, set to premiere at Toronto; and Damien Chazelle’s Sundance hit Whiplash. Spoerri also says he is toying with “a couple of ideas” for the opening film.

Competition reshuffle New for 2014 is a rejigged competition section and a boost to the prize money. The International Feature and International Documentary categories remain but the sections for German-language feature and documentary have been dropped. In their place is Focus: Switzerland, Germany and Austria, which will showcase features and documentaries from the three countries.

The Golden Eye award in each of the two main categories will receive $28,000 (CHF25,000) with the winner of the Focus category receiving $22,000 (CHF20,000). The winning film from each of the three categories will also get an additional $112,000 (CHF100,000) of distribution support.

This year’s edition will build on the festival’s ‘Swiss Made’ commitment with the introduction of an $11,000 (CHF10,000) prize awarded

‘Film finance is changing and we need to learn from the music and games industry’ Karl Spoerri, Zurich Film Festival

Opening dialogue Also new for 2014 is the multidisciplinary Zurich Summit, which Spoerri has masterminded alongside conference organiser Winston Baker. Running from September 27-28, the summit has evolved out of the Film Finance Forum, which launched at ZFF in 2010. Topics will include creating and managing blockbusters in the digital era and breaking into China. “Film finance is changing and we need to learn from the music and games industries,” says Spoerri. “The summit will feature more dialogue between industries than previously, offering new ideas.”

The event will also include a Game Changer award, honouring “a visionary who breaks new ground while choosing to ignore convention and popular opinion”.

ZFF will also introduce an out-of-competition strand to present television productions that have garnered international attention.

“Just look at the talent behind the current crop of TV pilots and you see the likes of Steven Soderbergh and Marc Forster,” says Spoerri.

The third International Film Music Competition will be held during the festival and brings with it Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer, who will be honoured with a lifetime achievement award and a concert of his most famous works. “We’ve tried to get him for the past five years,” reveals Spoerri, clearly delighted to be bringing in the composer behind Gladiator and The Dark Knight.

This year’s New World View section will focus on India, screening 10 new feature and documentary films by emerging Indian films makers and a short-film block. ■

ZURICH FILM FESTIVAL 2014 HIGHLIGHTS ■ The restructured competition will comprise prizes for International Feature,

International Documentary and Focus: Switzerland, Germany and Austria ■ New this year is a Swiss Made prize for a domestic film ■ The first Zurich Summit will be held September 27-28 ■ Hans Zimmer will be honoured with a lifetime achievement award ■ The New World Vision programme will focus on India

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VENICE FESTIVAL FOCUS ■ INTRODUCTION ■ ALBERTO BARBERA INTERVIEW ■ FESTIVAL PREVIEW

THE BIG HITTERS ast year it was the astronauts of Gravity, this year it’s Birdman soaring as another high-profile film opens Venice. It’s quite a score for Alberto Barbera and his team to land Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s much-anticipated US production starring Michael Keaton.

It’s one of many such scores for Venice this year — there’s also the likes of Good Kill by Andrew Niccol, The Look Of Silence by Joshua Oppenheimer, The Cut by Fatih Akin; and new films by Abel Ferrara, Roy Andersson, Xavier Beauvois, Wang Xiaoshuai and Benoit Jacquot. And that’s just in Competition.

A decade ago there were mutterings that

L

Venice was on the wane; grumbles that it was too expensive as a launchpad. It didn’t feel like a must-attend.

Times have changed and Venice feels like a vital first stop on the autumn festival circuit.

Yes there is star power, but the films never slip out of focus. That’s one reason why filmmakers love Venice: it’s that rare important festival that still feels intimate and relaxed.

Film-makers feel at home in Venice — in just two examples from this year, David Gordon Green is back just a year after Joe with Al Pacino starrer Manglehorn; and Andrei Konchalovsky is back 12 years after his House Of Fools won the Silver Lion.

In a year in which the foreign language Oscar went to Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty and Alice Rohrwacher’s The Wonders won the Grand Prix in Cannes, the Venice line-up shows more bright sparks than usual from Italian film-makers, including Mario Martone’s Il Giovane Favoloso, Francesco Munzi’s Black Souls (Anime Nere) and Franco Maresco’s Belluscone, Una Storia Siciliana.

Meanwhile Saverio Costanzo heads to New York for Hungry Hearts with man-of-themoment Adam Driver. All that, plus Larry Clark’s first film made outside the US. It’s certainly a feast of cinema at Venice 2014.

Wendy Mitchell, editor

Michael Keaton and Edward Norton in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Birdman

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»

August-September 2014 Screen International 21

Festival focus Alberto Barbera

A discovery channel Venice Film Festival director Alberto Barbera tells Melanie Goodfellow about the highlights of this year’s programme, the ones that got away and why festivals need to be more than just shop windows

A

lberto Barbera returned to Venice — after a decade’s absence — in 2012 and is now spearheading his third year of the programme. After kicking off last year’s well-received programme with the spectacular Gravity, he now offers Birdman for another high-profile opener. Barbera spoke to Screen about the manageable size of the programme, the strong French and Italian selections, and how festivals should be places of discovery.

— sometimes it’s because Venice is too early for their release strategies or perhaps the studios are focusing more on a US release rather than an international one.

I get the sense the US is increasingly focused on domestic productions and the local market rather than international — I’ve asked myself whether it is because the European market is decreasing in economic terms, unlike China.

Perhaps European festivals represent big costs without big returns? I don’t know.

Nobody has ever said this to me, it’s just something I’ve been pondering.

The official selection comprises 55 features selected from 1,700 submissions. How tough was it making the choices?

It can be hard and even painful. It was an exceptional year for French cinema, for example, and there were eight or 10 films that could have easily shown in Competition but we restricted it to four French titles, which is already a lot for one country.

We took two films by established directors — Xavier Beauvois’ The Price Of Fame (La Rancon De La Gloire) and Benoit Jacquot’s 3 Hearts — and two by upcoming talents, Alix Delaporte’s Le Dernier Coup De Marteau and David Oelhoffen’s Loin Des Hommes.

But 55 features seems the right number to me, to be fair to the film-makers, directors and guests, and coherent with the number of theatres we have. If we had more films, it would be difficult to organise press screenings and some films would be penalised in the schedule.

Also, out of 1,700 films, surprisingly few are of a high enough quality to compete… so sticking to the 55 level is right, even if it’s hard sometimes.

At the press conference, you said that festivals should not be simply shop windows for upcoming releases but also a place of research and discovery. Can you elaborate?

Very often festivals are treated like big marketing platforms for films. I’m not against that at all, and I get it, but I also think the festivals need to remember their roots as places to discover new voices, new talents and new ways of showing things.

I don’t like the idea of a festival made up only of big established auteurs or the sorts of films you expect to see at festivals. We should do real exploration work.

There’s not much point only showing work that’s going to get a release anyway. Of course, this year there are plenty of estab-

22 Screen International August-September 2014

But you got Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Birdman for Competition and as the opening film. How did you achieve that coup?

I knew Fox Searchlight didn’t want to take the film to Cannes because it was too early for the US release in October. I kept asking and asking if could see it and Fox Searchlight eventually obliged.

I loved it immediately — it’s complex, amusing, entertaining, with a great cast and it also shows off Alejandro’s virtuosity as a director. Perhaps my enthusiasm helped as well, but we’re very pleased to have it at the festival.

Alberto Barbera

lished film-makers in Competition but I’ve also included young Turkish first-time director Kaan Mujdeci and his low-budget, selfproduced work, Sivas. He’s got great talent. He’s a real cineaste and we want him to be better known as a director.

It’s an old chestnut but the end of August is a busy time of year on the festival front. How hard is it to get the films you want?

Two films that I wanted and didn’t get were David Fincher’s Gone Girl and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice — both of which have gone to New York Film Festival. The reasons films don’t come is not always clear

‘The festivals need to remember their roots as places to discover new voices’ Alberto Barbera, Venice Film Festival

The Italian film industry is supposedly in crisis but there’s a strong Italian presence at the festival. What are you excited about?

I’m really pleased with the Italian selection.

They’re all interesting films and different from the stereotypical comedies and dramas people expect from Italy. In Competition we’ve got Mario Martone’s Il Giovane Favoloso about [poet] Giacomo Leopardi, continuing the work he began with Noi Credevamo, which was also set in 1800s.

Francesco Munzi’s Anime Nere is about two warring Mafia ’Ndrangheta clans in Calabria.

Saverio Costanzo is also in Competition with his English-language Hungry Hearts, for which he has transposed an Italian story to New York.

In the Orizzonti selection we have Franco Maresco’s Belluscone, Una Storia Siciliana, about Silvio Berlusconi and the bonds between politics and the Mafia in Italy, while Sabina Guzzanti’s extraordinary La Trattativa, about alleged negotiations between the Mafia and the state in the early 1990s, is s screening out of competition. n

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8,400 Participants 490 Exhibitors 1,500 Buyers 790 Films 1,100 Screenings WWW.EFM-BERLINALE.DE

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Festival focus venice

Auteurs plot a course for Lido The Competition line-up for this year’s Venice Film Festival marks the return of mavericks such as Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Fatih Akin, with a wealth of talent represented in the Orizzonti, Critics’ Week and Venice Days sections COMPETITION

The Cut (Ger-Fr-It-Rus-Can-Pol-

99 Homes (US)

Tur) Dir Fatih Akin

Dir Ramin Bahrani Bahrani (Man Push Cart, At Any Price) shot this topical housing bubble drama in New Orleans. Andrew Garfield plays an unemployed father whose home goes into foreclosure; soon he is working for the duplicitous realtor (Michael Shannon) who caused his trouble in the first place. Ashok Amritraj’s Hyde Park and Image Nation Abu Dhabi produced and financed, with CAA repping US. Also a Special Presentation in Toronto.

Contact Hyde Park International sales@hydeparkentertainment.com

Birdman, Or The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance (US) Opening film Dir Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu Michael Keaton plays a washed-up actor — famous for playing an iconic superhero — who stages a Broadway play in order to be taken seriously. A dark comedy from Inarritu, whose last film was Biutiful in 2010. Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Zach Galifianakis and Emma Stone co-star; Gravity’s Emmanuel Lubezki serves as DoP. Set for US release on October 17.

Contact Fox Searchlight Pictures foxsearchlight.com

Black Souls (It-Fr) Dir Francesco Munzi Written by Munzi (Saimir) together with Gomorrah scribe Maurizio Braucci, Black Souls (Anime Nere) is a dark mob drama centred around three brothers from Calabria’s ’Ndrangheta Mafia and is based loosely on Gioacchino Criaco’s novel. It also plays in Toronto’s Contemporary World Cinema programme.

Contact Rai Trade

info@raitrade.it

Akin concludes his trilogy on love, death and the devil (after Head-On and The Edge Of Heaven) with The Cut, about the evil inherent in man. Set 100 years ago during the Armenian genocide, Tahar Rahim stars as a man struck mute by war who journeys across the world on a desperate search for his daughters (shooting took place in six countries). Akin won Berlin’s Golden Bear for Head-On and the best screenplay in Cannes for The Edge Of Heaven. Produced by Akin with Reinhard Brundig and the late Karl Baumgartner.

Contact The Match Factory info@matchfactory.de

Far From Men (Fr) Dir David Oelhoffen Far From Men (Loin Des Homes) is the second feature from Oelhoffen after he impressed at Cannes Critics’ Week in 2007 with In Your Wake (Nos Retrouvailles). An adaptation of Albert Camus’ short story The Guest (scripted by Oelhoffen with Antoine Lacomblez), Viggo Mortensen and rising star Reda Kateb star as a reclusive teacher and a villager in 1954 Algeria who are forced to flee the rebellion through the inhospitable Algerian Atlas range. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis provide the score. Also a Special Presentation in Toronto.

Contact Pathé accueil.distri@pathe.com

Fires On The Plain (Jap) Dir Shinya Tsukamoto Legendary cult actor-writer-director Tsukamoto (the Tetsuo series, Nightmare Detective) also takes cinematographer and editor credits on this ambitious feature shot in the Philippines about Japanese soldiers battling hunger and exile

24 Screen International August-September 2014

at the end of the Second World War. While this bears the same title as the classic 1959 Kon Ichikawa war film, it is not a remake, says the director, but a new adaptation of Shohei Ooka’s 1951 source novel.

Contact

nobi-movie.com

Good Kill (US) Dir Andrew Niccol Following Gattaca and Lord Of War, Ethan Hawke reteams with writer-director Niccol to play a pilot-turned-drone operator, with Zoe Kravitz and Jake Abel on his crew, and Bruce Greenwood as his commanding officer. Fighting the Taliban by remote control by day, he returns to the Las Vegas suburbs at night to his wife ( January Jones) and children, becoming increasingly tense and disillusioned. Produced by The Hurt Locker’s Nicolas Chartier with Zev Foreman. Also a Special Presentation in Toronto.

The Cut

Contact Voltage Pictures office@voltagepictures.com

Il Giovane Favoloso (It) Dir Mario Martone This biopic of the Italian Romantic poet Giacomo Leopardi stars Elio Germano, who won the best actor prize at Cannes in 2010 for Our Life. Although Leopaldi’s life was cut tragically short by cholera at the age of 38, the poet still made a huge impact and Martone traces his influences, starting with his patrician father’s rich library. Also starring Isabella Ragonese, Michele Riondino and Anna Mouglalis.

The Last Hammer Blow

Contact 01 Distribution info@01distribution.it

Hungry Hearts (It) Dir Saverio Costanzo Shot in New York on a low budget with just two leads — Girls and forthcoming Star Wars actor Adam Driver

Far From Men

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and Alba Rohrwacher — Hungry Hearts is based on the novel Indigo Child by Marco Franzoso, about an extreme eating disorder that affects a young mother who wants to keep her son pure. Costanzo, who also wrote the screenplay, is the director of the critically acclaimed The Solitude Of Prime Numbers. Hungry Hearts is also a Special Presentation in Toronto.

Contact 01 Distribution info@01distribution.it

The Last Hammer Blow (Fr) Dir Alix Delaporte Black Souls

Delaporte reunites Clotilde Hesme and Gregory Gadebois, the stars of her 2010 breakout hit Angel & Tony, which premiered at Venice Critics’ Week and won best newcomer César awards for the two leads. That film was a strong seller for Pyramide, which boarded The Last Hammer Blow (Le Dernier Coup De Marteau) early in the production process. Written

by Delaporte, it centres on a 14-year-old teenager in the south of France who has never known his father, a conductor.

Spain’s Candela Pena co-stars.

Contact Pyramide sales@pyramidefilms.com

Good Kill

The Look Of Silence (Den-Fin-Indo-Nor-UK) Dir Joshua Oppenheimer

Il Giovane Favoloso

Manglehorn

Oppenheimer follows up his Oscar-nominated and Bafta-winning documentary The Act Of Killing with the only documentary in Competition at Venice. The Look Of Silence is a follow-up to, or completion of, his earlier work about the Indonesian genocide, looking at the other side of the story — the victims who are forced to coexist with the people who murdered their families. Executive-produced by Andre Singer, Werner Herzog and Errol Morris.

Also playing in Toronto.

Contact Cinephil philippa@cinephil.co.il

Manglehorn (US) Dir David Gordon Green Al Pacino, Holly Hunter, Harmony Korine and Chris Messina headline Green’s return to Venice Competition a year after Joe. This, his 10th film and backed by Worldview Entertainment, is about a lonely locksmith (Al Pacino) in a small town who is really an ex-con that gave up the woman he loved for one last big job 40 years ago. Repped by CAA and Cinetic for the US, the film is also a Special Presentation in Toronto.

Hungry Hearts

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Contact WestEnd Films info@westendfilms.com

August-September 2014 Screen International 25

»

Festival focus venice

Pasolini

Sivas

Pasolini (Fr-Bel-It) Dir Abel Ferrara Willem Dafoe plays the visionary poet and film-maker Pier Paolo Pasolini on the last day of his life. The 54-year-old left-wing activist was murdered near Rome in 1975 by a 17-year-old male prostitute, but the case was reopened in 2005 with an inconclusive outcome. Ferrera stirred buzz with his controversial Welcome To New York recently; the outlaw director has already told the Italian press he knows who really killed Pasolini — so headlines should continue. Also a Special Presentation in Toronto.

Contact Capricci Films/Funny Balloons sales@funny-balloons.com

A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence (Swe-Ger-Nor-Fr) Dir Roy Andersson Cannes habitué Andersson makes the switch to Venice for the third in his ‘living’ trilogy (after Songs From The Second Floor and You, The Living), all released at seven-year intervals. This time, the Swedish absurdist master treats viewers to the tales of Sam and Jonathan, two travelling salesmen (of joke items) who take us on a tour through human destinies. Holger Andersson and Nisse Vestblom star. Also plays in Toronto Masters.

Contact Coproduction Office info@coproductionoffice.eu

26 Screen International August-September 2014

3 Hearts

The Postman’s White Nights (Ru) Dir Andrei Konchalovsky The renowned Russian-American director and early Tarkovsky collaborator Konchalovsky (brother of film-maker Nikita Mikhalkov) returns to the Lido after a break of several years (his 2002 feature House Of Fools won a Silver Lion, and his 1963 feature, I Walk Around Moscow, will be shown in the Venice Classics programme). Konchalovsky’s latest film, The Postman’s White Nights, centres around a postman (Aleksey Tryapitsyn) who is the only link between a far-flung village and the outside world.

Contact Andrei Konchalovsky Production Center pc.konchalovsky.ru fond@konchalovsky.ru

The Price Of Fame

anni (also appearing in 3 Hearts) star with Roschdy Zem, Peter Coyote and Dolores Chaplin.

Contact Wild Bunch cbaraton@wildbunch.eu

Red Amnesia (Chi) Dir Wang Xiaoshuai Set during China’s Cultural Revolution, Red Amnesia is a thriller about a widow whose life is shaken when she starts receiving anonymous phone calls. Starring Lu Zhong, Shi Liu, Feng Yuanzheng and Amanda Qin, Red Amnesia is directed by Sixth Generation master Wang, whose credits include 11 Flowers and Beijing Bicycle, and is world premiering at Venice before heading to Toronto as a Special Presentation.

Contact Chinese Shadows chineseshadows@gmail.com

(Fr-Bel-Swi) Dir Xavier Beauvois

Sivas (Tur-Ger)

Beauvois, who broke through internationally with Cannes Grand Prix winner Of Gods And Men in 2010, travels to Venice for the third time with his sixth feature, The Price Of Fame (La Rancon De La Gloire), a 1970s-set black comedy about an ex-con and his pal living on the shores of Lake Geneva who hatch a scheme to steal Charlie Chaplin’s coffin and extort money from his widow, Oona.

Benoit Poelvoorde and Chiara Mastroi-

Mujdeci, a first-time director from Turkey, presents the only debut feature in Competition this year. He tells the story of an 11-year-old boy who lives with his poverty-stricken family on the Anatolian steppes. The boy wants a leading part in the school play, but his rival is the son of the village chief. His life changes when he finds Sivas, a fighter dog who turns him into a winner. The film previously won the post-production award at Istan-

Dir Kaan Mujdeci

bul Film Festival’s Meetings On The Bridge.

Contact Nesra Gurbuz info@sivasfilm.com

Tales (Iran) Dir Rakhshan Bani-Etemad Tales (Gheseh-ha) premiered at Iran’s Fajr International Film Festival in February. Dealing with the social problems of contemporary Iran, Tales, as its title suggests, features several stories of modern life with all its frustrations and heartbreak, and has a particular focus on the lives of women. Baran Kosari, Peyman Moaadi, Fatemeh Motamed-Arya and Farhad Aslani star.

Contact Noori Pictures info@nooripictures.com

3 Hearts (Fr-Ger-Bel) Dir Benoit Jacquot Following the success of 2012’s Farewell, My Queen, France’s Jacquot returns for the fourth time to Venice Competition with 3 Hearts (3 Coeurs) — his 21st feature — starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Catherine Deneuve and her daughter Chiara Mastroianni. Belgium’s Benoit Poelvoorde co-stars in this story of chance meetings and missed opportunities written by Jacquot and produced by Edouard Weil and Alice Girard for Rectangle Productions. Also plays in Toronto.

Contact Elle Driver

eva@elledriver.eu

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ORIZZONTI Belluscone, Una Storia Siciliana (It) Dir Franco Maresco Known for his surreal collaborations with Daniele Cipri, Maresco goes it alone in satirical documentary Belluscone, Una Storia Siciliana, which might be subtitled ‘Silvio Berlusconi: The Sicilian Connection’. Weaving interviews with the likes of faithful Berlusconi sidekick Marcello D’Utri (currently in prison for Mafia association) with bizarre scripted interludes, Maresco has described the film as “a kind of sci-fi B-movie”.

Contact Dream Film info@dreamfilmproduzioni.com

Bypass (UK) Dir Duane Hopkins Six years after his well-received Cannes feature debut Better Things, UK director and visual artist Hopkins is back — this time in Venice — with a character-driven thriller set, once again, among the dis-

possessed British underclass. George MacKay (For Those In Peril) plays Tim, a small-time Newcastle crook with a sense of ethics. The film had been hotly tipped for Cannes but was not finished in time.

Contact The Match Factory info@matchfactory.de

Court (India) Dir Chaitanya Tamhane Writer/director Tamhane’s feature directorial debut, made with a cast of non-professional actors, follows an ageing folk singer accused of performing a song that might have incited the suicide of a sewage worker. Tamhane, whose short film Six Strands played at several international festivals, received backing from Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund.

Contact Zoo Entertainment zooentertainmentindia@gmail.com

Cymbeline (US) Dir Michael Almereyda One of Shakespeare’s more unfashionable works makes a play for a higher »

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Court

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Belluscone, Una Storia Siciliana

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FOCUS FEATURES - SCREEN INTERNATIONAL CHANGE OF ADDRESS 2014 August-September 2014 Screen International 27 1/2 PAGE VERTICAL - 4C STREET: 8/25/14 DUE: 8/15/14 TRIM: 93mm X 251mm, NO BLEED

Taipei Film Commission and its partners

Lucy In the face of global economic slowdown, filmmakers looking for new opportunities for funding turn to co-produce internationally.

Film commissioners across different regions have played a key role in integrating resources for co-productions. Taipei Film Commission, since its establishment in 2008, has been actively seeking international cooperation for film co-productions. For me, the main objectives of international co-productions are to minimize differences and to harmonize relations between countries in the West and in the East, as I am certain that the distinctive characteristics of cinematic productions in the East has been taken as a symbol of inner peace for many film lovers across the world.

three short stories directed by three Taiwanese directors and starring three talented Italian actors. The Taiwanese directors—HOU Chi-jan, CHO Li, and HSIEH Chun-yi, as outstanding as anticipated, demonstrate their strong commitment to making original and thought-provoking films. The three Italian actors—Marco FOSCHI, Margot SIKABONYI and Michele CESARI give impressive performances. We are looking forward to the next collaboration with you! When the East meets the West—as it is meant to be!

-Jennifer Jao, director of Taipei Film Commission

Lucy -- courtesy of Universal Pictures Taiwan LUCY

Taipei Factory II -- Alla Scoperta di Taipei

Taipei Factory II -- Alla Scoperta di Taipei

With this goal in mind, Taipei Film Commission inked partnerships with Ile de France Film Commission and Rai Cinema in 2010 and 2012 respectively. The exchange of talents and professionals in the film and television industries between Taiwan/France and between Taiwan/Italy in recent years has resulted in a substantial upgrade of the local film and television industries. We’ve witnessed the four Taiwanese directors of Taipei Factory I creating a buzz at the Directors’ Fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival in May 2013. That same year in November, French director Luc Besson came to Taipei and shot his film Lucy on location here. Mr. Besson praised his Taiwanese film crew for their professionalism and thanked the Taipei City Government for its assistance.

Now I am more than happy to introduce to you Taipei Factory II –Alla Scoperta di Taipei, an omnibus feature comprised of

Taipei Factory II -- Alla Scoperta di Taipei

Taipei Film Commission Director Jennifer Jao, left, poses a photo with Olivier-René Veillon, chief executive officer of Ile de France Film Commission, in the file photo.

Festival focus venice

profile in this New York-set gangland adaptation by eclectic US director, producer and film critic Almereyda, bestknown for his 2000 Hamlet, also set in contemporary New York. That film’s star, Ethan Hawke, returns here alongside Ed Harris, Milla Jovovich, Anton Yelchin and 50 Shades Of Grey lead Dakota Johnson. Pre-sales at last year’s AFM were robust, with around 20 territories already sold.

Contact IFT

kevin@iftsales.com

Goodnight Mommy (Aust) Dirs Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala Produced by Austrian misery-meister Ulrich Seidl, this dark little genre chiller is set in an isolated countryside house and centres on young twins who begin to suspect the woman who returns wrapped in bandages after cosmetic surgery is not their mother. Filmed on 35mm, using extensive improvisational preparation and a Ken Loach-style chronological shooting schedule, this feature debut is one of the hot tickets in this year’s Orizzonti. It also heads to Toronto’s Vanguard section.

Contact Films Distribution info@filmsdistribution.com

Heaven Knows What (US-Fr) Dir Josh Safdie, Ben Safdie The latest indie outing by the New Yorkbased Safdie brothers sees them return to fiction after the well-received basketball documentary Lenny Cooke. Hot talent Caleb Landry Jones stars alongside Arielle Jones, playing herself as a street kid battling addiction. Co-produced by Iconoclast Films — of Spring Breakers fame — this is the first film out of the stable from Elara Pictures, the production company set up by the Safdie brothers with Sebastian Bear-McClard and Oscar Boyson.

Contact Iconoclast Films hello@iconoclast.tv

Hill Of Freedom (S Kor) Dir Hong Sang-soo Hong’s 16th feature — though clocking in at just 66 minutes — is about a Japanese man who arrives in South Korea looking for the woman after whom he pines. While staying at a local guest house, he encounters a series of people who have an impact on him. Hill Of Freedom (Jayueui Onduk) stars Ryo Kase and Sori Moon. It also plays in Toronto Masters.

Contact Finecut cineinfo@finecut.co.kr

I’m With The Bride (It-Pal) Dirs Antonio Augugliaro, Gabriele Del Grande, Khaled Soliman Al Nassiry I’m With The Bride (Io Sono Con La Sposa) is sure to become one of the talking points of Venice 2014. The partially crowdfunded documentary seeks to illuminate the plight of recent Syrian immigrants in Europe by filming a people-trafficking operation run by the directors themselves — using a staged wedding as cover for the flight of a handful of Syrians sans papiers from Milan to Stockholm. If charged under Italian law, the directors risk 15 years in prison for aiding and abetting illegal immigration.

Contact DocLab

The President

info@doclab.it

Line Of Credit (Geo-Fr-Ger) Dir Salome Alexi Alexi’s Georgian-language feature debut stars local actress Nino Kasradze. The director studied at Paris film school La Fémis before making shorts and working as a journalist.

Contact German Films info@german-films.de

Nabat (Azer)

La Vita Oscena

Near Death Experience

Dir Elchin Musaoglu Set against the Nagorno-Karabakh War, Azerbaijani director Musaoglu’s second feature (following The 40th Door) is about the residents of a village who are forced to leave their homes because of an ongoing battle.

Contact Ritm Productions info@cineman.az

Near Death Experience (Fr)

who is deposed in a coup and flees disguised as a street musician — so coming face to face with the people over whom he once ruled. This is one of two F&ME coproductions to have shot recently in Georgia, the other being Ben Hopkins’ upcoming Epic.

Contact BAC Films International sales@bacfilms.fr

Dirs Benoit Delépine, Gustave Kervern

Reality (Fr) Dir Quentin Dupieux

This Venice debut for the edgily comic French directing duo (Mammuth) could be their weirdest film yet. It stars controversial French novelist Michel Houellebecq as a burnt-out phone company worker who heads for the mountains in the midst of an existential crisis. Little else is known about the project, which has been kept under wraps. With Houellebecq as the only credited actor, a lot will ride on his performance.

As Mr Oizo, French electronic musician Dupieux scored a major 1999 hit with the track Flat Beat. He later turned to directing with a string of surreal, low-budget indie films (among them Cannesselected killer-tyre flick Rubber), all shot in the US. His multi-strand latest centres on a horror-film director — played by popular French comedian Alain Chabat — who has 48 hours to find and record the perfect scream.

Contact Funny Balloons sales@funny-balloons.com

Contact Indie Sales

The President (Geo-Fr-UK-Ger) Dir Mohsen Makhmalbaf Opening Orizzonti, émigré Iranian director Makhmalbaf ’s first English-language feature is a modern-day fable of a dictator

30 Screen International August-September 2014

info@indiesales.eu

La Vita Oscena (It) Dir Renato De Maria Based on Aldo Nove’s autobiographical novel published in 2010, La Vita Oscena stars Isabella Ferrari, Clément Métayer and Roberto De Francesco. The film is

backed by Film Vision and Intelfilm with support from MiBAC. Contact Intelfilm

info@intelfilm.it

Without Pity (It) Dir Michele Alhaique Italian drama Without Pity (Senza Pieta) sees Pierfrancesco Favino as a labourer who also works for his loan shark uncle (Ninetto Davoli). Alhaique, whose acting credits include Nine and Horses, makes his feature directorial debut. Alexandra Rossi (ex-Paramount and New Line) is one of the producers.

Contact Indie Sales

info@indiesales.eu

Your Right Mind (US) Dir Ami Canaan Mann Michael Mann’s writer-director daughter follows up the poorly received procedural Texas Killing Fields with a tough contemporary romance starring Katherine Heigl. She plays a country singer mired in a child custody battle, whose life is changed when she meets an itinerant folkster (Ben Barnes). With Heigl looking to revive her career with indie kudos, the placement in Orizzonti instead of Competition may not be a good sign.

Contact Highland Film Group sales@highlandfilmgroup.com

www.screendaily.com

No One’s Child

Flapping In The Middle Of Nowhere

CRITICS’ WEEK 40-Love (Fr-Bel) Dir Stéphane Demoustier Demoustier’s debut feature 40-Love (Terre Battue) has a starry cast including Olivier Gourmet and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi. Described as an existential thriller, it follows a businessman determined to set up his own company, whatever the obstacles, and his equally ambitious tennis prodigy son. The film was co-produced

by Les Films du Fleuve, the Belgian company run by the Dardenne brothers.

Contact Films Distribution info@filmsdistribution.com

The Coffin In The Mountain (Chi) Dir Xin Yukun Xin’s debut feature The Coffin In The Mountain (Binguan) is a village-set film noir with a plot that involves pregnancy, death and deception. Produced by Ren Jiangzhou of Sea Level Production, it follows on from the director’s short film Seven Nights, which travelled widely on the festival circuit. The 30-year-old writer-director worked on the screenplay for three years.

Contact First

info@firstfilm.org.cn

www.screendaily.com

The Council Of Birds (Ger)

screening at the Venice market last year.

Dir Timm Kröger

Contact Slingshot Films manuela@slingshotfilms.it

Hailed as a “certain discovery” by Critics’ Week programmers, 1920s-set The Council Of Birds, the first feature by young German auteur Kröger, is an atmospheric drama about a composer who has mysteriously disappeared from his cabin in the woods. It is the director’s graduation film from Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, and Viktoria Stolpe produces. Kröger is already an experienced cinematographer.

Contact Filmakademie BadenWurttemberg festivals@filmakademie.de

Dancing With Maria (It-Arg-Slo) Dir Ivan Gergolet Italian director Gergolet’s first featurelength documentary, which he shot in Buenos Aires, profiles 90-year-old Argentinian dancer Maria Fux, an inspirational teacher for many years but whose own body is beginning to give out on her. Dancing With Maria was made through Transmedia Production, which also worked with the director on his 2008 short noir Polvere. Dancing With Maria received a promo reel special

Flapping In The Middle Of Nowhere (Viet-Fr-Nor-Ger)

cal tensions. The film has a strong pedigree: it is produced by Domenico Procacci (Gomorrah, We Have A Pope), whose Fandango handles sales, and is co-produced by Rai Cinema.

Contact Fandango

Dir Nguyen Hoang Diep

sales@fandango.it

Melbourne (Iran)

Vietnamese director Nguyen, the founder of production company Vblock Media, has made several shorts and documentaries, with Flapping In The Middle Of Nowhere (Dap Canh Giu’a Khong Trung) marking her feature debut. A Hanoi-set drama about a young pregnant girl who wants to have an abortion, the film received support from Parisbased Ciné-Sud Promotion as well as from a number of other European funds.

Her short Two, Four And Six screened in Cannes.

Contact Ciné-Sud thierry@cinesudpromotion.com

Dir Nima Javidi Peyman Moaadi, who played the husband in Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar winner A Separation, is one of the leads in Melbourne, the debut feature from Iranian director Javidi. The film is an intense drama about a couple whose hopes of studying in Australia are undermined by a tragic accident. Javidi, who studied mechanical engineering before turning to film-making, has six shorts, two documentaries and more than 30 commercials to his name.

Contact Iranian Independents info@iranianindependents.com

The Market (It) Dir Diego Bianchi

No One’s Child (Ser)

Outspoken columnist and blogger Bianchi (also known as Zoro) makes his feature debut with a satire set during the sweltering summer of 2011. Plans to close the local market provoke furious controversy and expose racial and politi-

Dir Vuk Rsumovic Serbian director Rsumovic’s debut feature is the first Serbian entry in Critics’ Week in three decades. Inspired by a true story, it tells of an abandoned, feral child, discovered living with wolves in »

August-September 2014 Screen International 31

Festival focus venice

the Bosnian mountains. Rsumovic, an experienced TV director, won a work-inprogress award for No One’s Child in Les Arcs last year.

this contemporary interpretation of Ovid’s classic story starring Amira Akili and Sébastien Hirel.

Contact MK2 juliette.schrameck@mk2.com

Contact Soul Food Distribution sonja.topalovic@soulfoodfilms.com

Patria (It)

Villa Touma

Dir Felice Farina

Dir Suha Arraf

The Physics Of Water director Farina returns with this film about the economic crisis in Italy, told from the point of view of a factory worker, a labour unionist and an office worker. The film stars Francesco Pannofino, Roberto Citran and Carlo Giuseppe Gabardini.

Metamorphoses

Contact Nina Film

Return To Ithaca (Fr) Dir Laurent Cantet The latest film from 2008 Palme d’Or winning director Cantet centres around a group of friends in Cuba celebrating the return of an exiled friend. Cantet’s Heading South won Venice’s Cinema For Peace award in 2005. The film also plays in Toronto Special Presentations.

Contact Suha Arraf shaarraf@hotmail.com

VENICE DAYS Between 10 And 12 (Bel-Fr-Neth) Dir Peter Hoogendoorn

Contact Funny Balloons sales@funny-balloons.com El 5 De Talleres

The Smell Of Us (Fr)

Two policeman are on their way to bring terrible news to a family, in the feature debut from Dutch film-maker Hoogendoorn, who developed the project at Binger Film Lab.

Dir Larry Clark The director of cult film Kids returns with his first feature made outside the US, a portrait of a group of self-destructive skateboarders in Paris. The cast features Michael Pitt, Alex Martin and Niseema Theillaud. Clark’s 2001 film Bully was in Competition in Venice.

Contact Keren Cogan Films info@kerencoganfilms.com

The Dinner (It)

Contact Wild Bunch vmaraval@wildbunch.eu

Dir Ivano De Matteo The Dinner (I Nostri Ragazzi), a drama about a family dinner going horribly wrong, is inspired by Herman Koch’s worldwide bestselling novel of the same name (which was previously adapted as a Dutch-language film by Menno Meyjes and is also slated for a Cate Blanchett adaptation). Italian director De Matteo’s Balancing Act screened in Orizzonti in 2012.

Contact Rai Trade

info@raitrade.it

El 5 De Talleres (Arg) Dir Adrian Biniez Biniez’s second feature following his 2009 debut Gigante, which won the Silver Bear and best debut prize at Berlin, centres around a third-tier footballer who has fallen short of fame and fortune, and must look for a fresh start after his career comes to an end.

Contact Films Boutique info@filmsboutique.com

32 Screen International August-September 2014

info@ninafilm.it

Villa Touma

The Farewell Party (Isr-Ger) Dirs Sharon Maymon, Tal Granit A group of friends in a Jerusalem retirement home build a self-euthanasia machine for their terminally ill friend in The Farewell Party (Mita Tova), a dark comedy by Granit and Maymon, whose Israeli blockbuster A Matter Of Size has been picked up by Paramount for a US remake. Also plays in Toronto.

The Goob

Summer Nights (Fr) of stock-car racing. The Emu Films production was developed through popular UK low-budget scheme iFeatures.

Contact Emu Films

info@emufilms.com

Labour Of Love (Ind) Dir Adityavikram Sengupta

Contact Beta Cinema beta@betacinema.com

Sengupta’s feature debut Labour Of Love (Asha Jaoar Majhe) is a Calcutta-set, Bengali-language drama about two ordinary people living in the recession.

Ritwick Chakraborty stars.

The Goob (UK)

Contact Salaam Cinema labouroflovefilm@gmail.com

Dir Guy Myhill The feature debut from UK writer/director Myhill is a coming-of-age story about a 16-year-old boy (Liam Springs) in Norfolk. Sean Harris also leads the cast of the film, which is set against the world

Metamorphoses (Fr) Dir Christophe Honoré Acclaimed French director Honoré’s 2011 film The Beloved closed Cannes, and now he is heading to Venice with

Dir Mario Fanfani The 1950s-set feature debut from French director Fanfani is about a husband and father who has a secret passion for transvestism. It stars Guillaume de Tonquédec and Jeanne Balibar.

Contact Le Pacte

c.neel@le-pacte.com

They Have Escaped (Fin-Neth) Dir Jukka-Pekka Valkeapaa This portrait of troubled youth centres around two teenage outcasts who embark on a cross-country journey.

Finnish film-maker Valkeapaa’s last feature was 2009’s The Visitor. They Have Escaped (He Ovat Paenneet) also plays in Toronto’s Vanguard programme.

Contact The Yellow Affair s miira@yellowaffair.com n

www.screendaily.com

Profiles by Sarah Cooper, Finn Halligan, Lee Marshall, Geoffrey Macnab and Wendy Mitchell

Celebrated journalist, screenwriter and producer Arraf, who co-scripted such films as The Syrian Bride and Lemon Tree for Eran Riklis, as well as directing feature documentary Women Of Hamas, makes her dramatic debut with Villa Touma. The film, which Arraf also produced, is about three aristocratic Christian sisters from Ramallah who are struggling to cope with life under occupation. The cast includes Arraf ’s fellow director Cherien Dabis (Amreeka).

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Toronto festival focus n introduction n Cameron Bailey interview n Festival preview

Bent Hamer’s 1001 Grams

Such lofty heights T

oronto is too big. I still firmly believe that — if we’re looking at it as a single event that the film industry can get its collective head around. Even with the (smart) new Telluride world premiere policy, there are still so many world premieres that nobody can begin to see them all on the ground.

But there’s a positive side to Toronto’s massive size — no other festival does, or probably ever will, offer the volume of great new films in one place. That’s a benefit not only for the rabid Canadian film-going public who

www.screendaily.com

flood Toronto’s cinemas, but also for serving every side of the industry. If you’re a film lover, attending TIFF is like being a kid in a very sweet candy store. There’s something for everyone, maybe dozens of things for everyone. That can be awards season fodder (The Theory Of Everything, The Imitation Game), commercial leaning prospects (The Judge, The Equalizer), Canadian talents (An Eye For Beauty, October Gale), genre excitements (Tusk, [REC] 4: Apocalypse), and not to forget a wealth of new films from international auteurs (Francois Ozon,

Christian Petzold, Susanne Bier, Bent Hamer) as well as new talents in the Discovery section (announced after Screen went to press).

There is so much to be excited about, and even when I get overwhelmed about covering the volume of films from a professional standpoint, I still hope to be that kid in a candy store when the lights go down. There’s simply no other place to see this many of the year’s best films in one city over 11 days.

Wendy Mitchell, editor »

August-September 2014 Screen International 35

Festival focus Cameron Bailey

The festival of choice Toronto artistic director Cameron Bailey talks to Jeremy Kay about food trucks, not being a snob and the Telluride policy

least a North American premiere. We have significant films including acquisition titles playing all the way until the final Friday. We’re trying to schedule the festival to give people the chance to see as much as possible if they stay longer.

You’ve said that the landscape has changed. How? What we were all looking at was how the landscape of film launches was changing. Fall has become such a hothouse atmosphere of films launching for theatrical releases and box office but also for awards attention and especially through festivals. There’s become over the last few years an escalated sense — a race to Oscar night that starts in September.

Between that and the shift in how the film industry is covered in the media, it’s changed the landscape entirely.

C

ameron Bailey has been programming for Toronto International Film Festival since 1990 and has been artistic director since 2008. Although he oversees the whole programme, he also has specific emphasis on the regions of South Asia, western Europe, US and the Caribbean, plus the strands City To City: Seoul and Galas.

To the matter at hand: define TIFF. There’s that sense of democratic cinephilia. It’s really important. We’re interested in films that show us the best of what the art film can do but we’re not snobs and we don’t act like snobs. The other thing is that the international side of this is important to us. Toronto is a very diverse city — half of the people who live here weren’t born here and we try to programme to our city.

It’s a big festival and that’s because we’re a public festival. We’ve got really enthusiastic audiences in Toronto and that’s why people come. The people who watch the movies know movies. They’re knowledgeable and not snobbish about film. It’s rare to have that combination and that’s why film-makers love to come to Toronto. We can show everything from very accessible films to quite rarified, experimental films and there’s still a public audience for it.

As Al Pacino, the subject of your TIFF Gala, might say, ‘Whaddya got?’

It’s a really strong year for auteur cinema. You can look at all the major festivals we’ve had so far this year [or that have announced their programmes] and find strong, new auteur films — from

‘What’s important is it’s impossible for any one individual to cover and feel they’ve seen everything’ Cameron Bailey, TIFF

What has been the media’s role in this?

There’s a sense that journalists have to get an opinion out right away. As the credits are rolling, you can see faces light up as social media kicks in. We used to have a stable film ecosystem of Venice, Telluride and Toronto where films could launch and people wouldn’t start to talk about the Oscar process. Last year there were Tweets and posts analysing the Oscar chances of films before September and a lot of this is now coming out of awards-based media that’s going anywhere they can to smell a contender.

Cameron Bailey

Berlin to Cannes to Toronto and Venice.

I’m excited.

We have Susanne Bier’s A Second Chance; Eden from Mia Hansen-Love; and new work from Francois Ozon, Christian Petzold, Noah Baumbach. To me these are the auteurs who are in the middle of making their reputations as important film-makers. We’ve also got some films that premiered earlier in the year, such as Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner.

The City To City focus is Seoul. Why? Giovanna Fulvi, our East and Southeast Asia and City To City: Seoul programmer, and I were saying a few weeks back that it’s been incredible tapping into this resource of directors who have been working in elevated genre. We’ve seen Bong Joon-ho, Park Chan-wook and Kim Ki-duk come out of Korea and now there’s a whole new generation. We could have filled the section with genre but there’s more going on. There are

36 Screen International August-September 2014

some very cool, dangerous films and some surprises.

In spring, you told distributors that if their movie played Telluride they wouldn’t get the first-weekend slot in Toronto. Why now?

We were still operating on the old system where we would present what we called the world premiere or the North American premiere in Toronto. But after all that excitable coverage [by media from Telluride] had already happened before we got up on stage, it began to feel silly.

And the upshot is…

When we call something a world premiere, it’s accurate. Audiences understand what that means. We’ve got a lot of films in our festival and the premiere is so important to our film-makers we had to ensure these films have the position in the festival they deserve, so that means everything in the first four days will be at

Is TIFF getting too big?

I’m happy with the size of it but what’s important is it’s impossible for any one individual to cover and feel they’ve seen everything. It’s not possible to do that. It’s not that kind of festival where you’ve got 30-40 films in selection and you think you can do it. Like Berlin, we’re a big festival. Berlin shows more films than we do. It means you have to make choices.

What’s new this year at TIFF? King Street is closing down and turning into a festival street. From University Avenue to Peter Street, in front of the Lightbox, the Princess of Wales Theatre and Roy Thomson Hall, it will be closed from Thursday to Sunday night. We’ll have music and performances and food trucks, which I love. We have launched the Short Cuts International section. For many years our [short] films were only open to Canadian film-makers and I s wanted to open that up. n

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festival focus toronto

Holding court A round up of the world premieres across TIFF’s impressive programme, including hot prospects from Noah Baumbach, Francois Ozon, Alan Rickman, Michael Winterbottom, Susanne Bier and Christian Petzold Galas

Opening film

Black And White (US)

The Judge (US)

Dir Mike Binder

Dir David Dobkin

Binder’s latest drama starring old collaborator Kevin Costner began life as a pre-sales title in Cannes 2013 and has flowered into his first film in seven years, since Reign Over Me. The curiosity factor should inspire interest in the story of a widower mired in a custody battle for his granddaughter.

While this is a good get for opening night at Toronto, insiders are not bullish about awards prospects. Robert Downey Jr shifts down a few gears after his Iron Man shenanigans to play a lawyer whose father (Robert Duvall) is accused of murder. Dobkin’s credits include Wedding Crashers.

US contact Cassian Elwes cassian.elwes@gmail.com International contact IM Global info@imglobalfilm.com

Boychoir (US) Dir Francois Girard Dustin Hoffman, Josh Lucas and Kathy Bates are among the cast of this drama from Girard (The Red Violin) about a troubled 11-year-old from a Texas town who joins a prestigious music school.

Contact Embankment Films info@embankmentfilms.com

The Connection (Fr-Bel) Dir Cédric Jimenez Based on a true story, The Connection (La French) charts the six-year battle of

Contact Warner Bros warnerbros.com

police magistrate Pierre Michel (Jean Dujardin) to take down Marseille Mafia kingpin Gaëtan Zampa. The Gaumont crime thriller sold to Drafthouse for the US and Picturehouse/Altitude for the UK based on a hot eight-minute sizzle reel in Cannes.

Contact Gaumont International international@gaumont.fr

Escobar: Paradise Lost (Fr) Dir Andrea Di Stefano Actor Di Stefano makes his directorial debut on the story of a US surfer (The Hunger Games’ Josh Hutcherson) who

meets the girl of his dreams but has a brutal reality check when he faces her uncle, Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar (Benicio del Toro).

Contact Pathé International sales@patheinternational.com

The Equalizer (US) Dir Antoine Fuqua The Equalizer should fall firmly into TIFF’s mainstream entertainment offerings. Fuqua sent Denzel Washington’s career sky-high after the leading man nabbed an Oscar for Training Day and the pair reunite for a loose adaptation of

the 1980s TV series; Washington plays an ex-CIA agent and lone crimefighter going up against the Russian mob.

Contact Sony

sonypictures.com

The Forger (US) Dir Philip Martin John Travolta brings the red carpet kudos and stars alongside Christopher Plummer and rising star Tye Sheridan in this crime thriller about a petty thief compelled to pull off one more job.

US contact WME Global; ICM Partners jlacy@icmpartners.com International contact The Solution Entertainment Group lisa@thesolutionent.com

The New Girlfriend (Fr) Dir Francois Ozon The prolific Ozon returns to Toronto after last year’s Young & Beautiful with The New Girlfriend (Une Nouvelle Amie), a love story starring Anaïs Demoustier and Romain Duris. Based on a short story by Ruth Rendell, Demoustier plays a woman, depressed after the death of her friend, who finds the strength to re-embrace life when she discovers a secret about her friend’s husband.

Contact Films Distribution info@filmsdistribution.com

Closing film A Little Chaos (UK) Dir Alan Rickman Rickman directs this prestige period piece starring Kate Winslet as a landscape designer who battles Louis XIV’s architect (Matthias Schoenaerts) during the planning stage of Versailles. The film is Rickman’s first directorial effort since 1997’s The Winter Guest, which won Emma Thompson the best actress prize in Venice.

US contact CAA filmsales@caa.com International contact Lionsgate lionsgate.com The Cobbler

40 Screen International August-September 2014

www.screendaily.com

The Dead Lands

American Heist

This Is Where I Leave You

Pawn Sacrifice (US) Dir Ed Zwick Does a story about the Cold War chess match between the US’s Bobby Fischer (Tobey Maguire) and Soviet Grandmaster Boris Spassky (Liev Schreiber) have what it takes to galvanise the crowd?

Time will tell. Zwick can certainly rouse the masses and buyers will be monitoring this one closely.

US contact CAA filmsales@caa.com International contact Lionsgate International info @lionsgate.com

The Riot Club (UK) Dir Lone Scherfig An Education director Scherfig teams with UK producers Blueprint Pictures and a host of rising UK talent including Sam Claflin on the story of two young

Before We Go

men who are inducted into the exclusive, debaucherous company of Oxford University’s elite Riot Club. The film is based on the hit play Posh.

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

Contact HanWay Films info@hanwayfilms.com

Dir Sarik Andreasyan

Ruth & Alex (US) Dir Richard Loncraine Formerly known as Life Itself and based on Jill Ciment’s novel Heroic Measures, Ruth & Alex takes place over one weekend as a couple agonise over whether to sell their Brooklyn home. Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton star.

US contact CAA and WME Global filmsales@caa.com International contact Myriad Pictures info@myriadpictures.com

Samba (Fr) Dirs Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano The directors of breakout hit Intouchables reunite with star Omar Sy, who plays a recent migrant to France fighting to stay in his adopted country with the help of a rookie immigration worker, played

by Charlotte Gainsbourg.

Contact Gaumont

www.screendaily.com

Ruth & Alex

abuhl@gaumont.fr

Cake (US) Dir Daniel Barnz

American Heist (US) Adrien Brody and Hayden Christensen star as brothers who become embroiled in a high-stakes bank robbery. This remake of the Steve McQueen film The Great St Louis Bank Robbery (1959) is one of the first productions from Glacier Films, in which Christensen is a partner.

Contact Voltage Pictures office@voltagepictures.com

Before We Go (US) Dir Chris Evans Actor Evans (Captain America, Snowpiercer) makes his directorial debut and also stars in this New York-set romance about two strangers who meet in Grand Central Station after missing their last train, and over the course of a night develop an unlikely bond.

US contact CAA filmsales@caa.com; WME filmsales@ wmeentertainment.com International contact Sierra/Affinity info@sierra-affinity.com

This Is Where I Leave You

Beyond The Lights (US)

(US) Dir Shawn Levy

Dir Gina Prince-Bythewood

Jennifer Aniston plays a woman in a chronic-pain support group who begins to investigate the suicide of a fellow group member, played by Anna Kendrick. Barnz most recently directed drama Won’t Back Down. Patrick Tobin wrote the Black Listed script. Cake is the first of a five-film deal between After Dark Films and China’s Shenghua.

US contact WME filmsales@ wmeentertainment.com; CAA filmsales@caa.com International contact Conquistador Entertainment pascal@conquistador-ent.com

The Cobbler (US) Dir Thomas McCarthy The Station Agent, The Visitor and Win Win director McCarthy offers a fantasy starring Adam Sandler as a shoe repairman who discovers a magical heirloom that lets him experience the lives of his customers. The cast also features Method Man, Ellen Barkin, Steve Buscemi and Dustin Hoffman. It marks McCarthy’s fourth collaboration with producer Mary Jane Skalski.

US contact WME wma.com International contact Voltage Pictures sales@voltagepictures.com

Jane Fonda, Tina Fey, Jason Bateman and Adam Driver are among the cast of The Internship and Night At The Museum director Levy’s comedy about a death in the family that brings together an expansive, far-flung clan.

The first title set to go out under Relativity Studios’ new multicultural division, Beyond The Lights stars Belle breakout Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Nate Parker and Minnie Driver in the tale of a music superstar who meets a man as her career pressures mount.

Contact Warner Bros Pictures lance.volland@warnerbros.com

Contact Relativity Studios international sales@relativitymedia.com

The Dead Lands (NZ-UK) Dir Toa Fraser Maori-language action epic The Dead Lands (Hautoa) is set in pre-colonial New Zealand, when a teenager (James Rolleston) wants to avenge his father’s death after learning ancient martial arts »

August-September 2014 Screen International 41

festival focus toronto

from a legendary warrior (Lawrence Makoare). The mood is a departure from Fraser’s family friendly film, Dean Spanley, and ballet documentary Giselle, which both played in Toronto.

Roskam’s first English-language feature.

The Gate (Fr)

Contact Fox Searchlight foxsearchlight.com

Dir Régis Wargnier

Contact XYZ Films xyzfilms.com aram@xyzfilms.com

Dir Mia Hansen-Love

Don’t Go Breaking My Heart 2 (HK-China) Dir Johnnie To The Hong Kong action auteur returns to more light-hearted fare with a sequel to his hit romantic comedy, about two former lovers who find themselves irresistibly drawn back together — despite the fact each of them is engaged to someone else.

Contact Media Asia Film Distribution (HK) wwdist@mediaasia.com

The Drop (US) Dir Michael R Roskam An impressive cast of Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace and the late James Gandolfini should ensure steady lines at the festival box office for this crime saga about a botched robbery that opens a can of worms in a tight-knit community.

This is Oscar nominee Bullhead director

Eden (Fr) Father Of My Children and Goodbye First Love director Hansen-Love’s film follows the rise and fall of a French DJ (Félix de Givry) who was among the pioneers of electronic music dubbed the ‘French touch’, which was big in the 1980s. The film features indie favourites Greta Gerwig and Brady Corbet.

Contact Kinology gmareschi@kinology.eu

The Elephant Song (Can) Dir Charles Binamé As well as having his own feature Mommy at TIFF, Dolan also stars in this psychological thriller based on Nicolas Billon’s play, as a psychiatric patient in a power struggle with his doctor, played

by Bruce Greenwood. Carrie-Anne Moss and Catherine Keener also star. Binamé’s credits include Seraphin: Heart Of Stone.

Contact Seville International sevilleinternational@filmsseville.com

Indochine and East-West director Wargnier returns with the story of a French ethnologist and a former Khmer Rouge official who meet again after the latter is arrested for crimes against humanity.

Contact Gaumont International cdourlent@gaumont.fr

Gemma Bovery (Fr) Dir Anne Fontaine The French director of Coco Before Chanel delivers an update of Flaubert’s masterpiece Madame Bovary, starring Gemma Arterton as a passionate young Englishwoman whose dull married life in a provincial Norman town steers her towards adultery. Not to be confused with another TIFF Bovary adaptation directed by Sophie Barthes (see opposite).

Contact Gaumont abuhl@gaumont.fr

Gentlemen (Swe) Dir Mikael Marcimain Call Girl director Marcimain returns to Toronto with this epic about the gentlemen and gangsters of post-Second World War Sweden based on Klas Ostergren’s bestseller. The cast includes David Dencik and Pernilla August. The project, which presented scenes as a work in progress in Goteborg, will also be a four-part TV mini-series in Scandinavia.

Contact Wild Bunch cbaraton@wildbunch.eu

The Good Lie (US) Dir Philippe Falardeau

Gemma Bovery

Don’t Go Breaking My Heart 2

This fact-based drama from Monsieur Lazhar director Falardeau follows a US woman, played by Reese Witherspoon, who takes four refugees from the Sudanese civil war under her wing.

Contact Lionsgate international sales@lionsgate.com

The Keeping Room

42 Screen International August-September 2014

The Good Lie

Miss Julie

Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet (Can-Fr-Leb-Qat-US) Dirs Various Director Roger Allers (The Lion King) assembled an array of animators to realise the Lebanese classic about a mischievous young girl (voiced by Quvenzhané Wallis) who attempts to free an imprisoned poet (Liam Neeson). Salma Hayek is one of the producers of the project, which was previewed as a work in progress in Cannes.

US contact CAA filmsales@caa.com International contact Wild Bunch obarbier@wildbunch.eu

The Keeping Room (US) Dir Daniel Barber The always watchable Brit Marling stars in this Civil War thriller alongside Hailee Steinfeld and Muna Otaru. Barber’s credits include Harry Brown.

US contact WME Global filmsales@wmeentertainment.com International contact Sierra/Affinity info@sierra-affinity.com

Mary Kom

www.screendaily.com

Miss Julie (Nor-UK-Ire) Dir Liv Ullmann Bergman muse Ullmann returns to the director’s chair for the first time since 2000’s Faithless with this adaptation of the August Strindberg play. The cast is led by Jessica Chastain, Colin Farrell and Samantha Morton, with the story relocated to Northern Ireland.

US contact CAA filmsales@caa.com International contact Wild Bunch cbaraton@wildbunch.eu

My Old Lady (US) Dir Israel Horovitz Kevin Kline, Maggie Smith and Kristin Scott Thomas star in playwright and screenwriter Horovitz’s comedy-drama about an American who inherits an apartment in Paris that comes with an unexpected resident. Cohen Media Group has US rights.

Ned Rifle

Human Highway (Director’s Cut) (US) Dirs Bernard Shakey, Dean Stockwell, Neil Young Toronto presents the director’s cut of Neil Young’s mind-bending 1982 post-apocalyptic musical comedy, in which the musician writes, directs and stars alongside an eclectic cast including Dean Stockwell, Dennis Hopper and Devo.

Contact Abramorama richard@abramorama.com

The Last Five Years (US) Dir Richard LaGravenese Writer/director LaGravenese (P.S. I Love You) adapts Jason Robert Brown’s hit Broadway musical that charts the relationship between a struggling actress Cathy (Anna Kendrick) and her novelist lover Jamie (Jeremy Jordan) over five years, seen from their very different viewpoints.

US contact CAA filmsales@caa.com International contact The Exchange info@theexchange.com

Learning To Drive (US)

Maggie (US)

Dir Isabel Coixet

Dir Henry Hobson

Barcelona-born Coixet follows the experimental Panda Eyes (aka Another Me) with a more straightforward drama about a heartbroken Manhattan woman (Patricia Clarkson) who takes driving lessons from a Sikh man in Queens (Ben Kingsley). The film is adapted from a New Yorker magazine essay.

The directorial debut of graphic designer Hobson, who designed the credits sequence of Snow White & The Huntsman among others, stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as a father who sticks by his teenage daughter (Abigail Breslin) as she turns into a zombie.

Contact CAA

filmsales@caa.com

Love & Mercy (US) Dir Bill Pohlad The long-in-the-works tale of The Beach Boys’ tortured genius Brian Wilson (Paul Dano, John Cusack) has finally arrived.

The question is, can River Road Entertainment founder Pohlad turn his genius for choosing great projects to produce — 12 Years A Slave, The Tree Of Life to name a few — into a flair for storytelling behind the camera? An Oren Moverman script can only help.

US contact CAA filmsales@caa.com International contact Lionsgate International lionsgate.com

Madame Bovary (UK-Bel) Dir Sophie Barthes Mia Wasikowska takes the lead role in the adaptation of Gustave Flaubert’s novel of the same name about a doctor’s wife who embarks on a series of love affairs. Not to be confused with another TIFF selection, Gemma Bovery, by Anne Fontaine. Barthes’s debut feature Cold Souls premiered at Sundance in 2009.

Nightcrawler

www.screendaily.com

US contact WME wma.co International contact Radiant Films International aska@radiant-films.com

Contact Protagonist Pictures info@protagonistpictures.com

US contact CAA caa.com International contact Lotus Entertainment info@lotusentertainment.com

Mary Kom (Ind)

Ned Rifle (US) Dir Hal Hartley The third and final film in Hartley’s trilogy (the characters were introduced in Henry Fool in 1997 and 2006 sequel Fay Grim) sees Liam Aiken reprise his role as the title character Ned Rifle, newly emerged from a witness protection programme and aiming to kill his father for ruining his mother’s life. Aubrey Plaza also stars.

Contact Fortissimo Films info@fortissimo.nl

Dir Omung Kumar Priyanka Chopra stars in this biopic of female Indian boxer Mary Kom, who overcame tough circumstances to become World Boxing Champion and an Olympic bronze medallist. Kumar is a well-known set designer and makes his directorial debut.

Nightcrawler (US) Dir Dan Gilroy

Men, Women & Children

Crime thriller Nightcrawler, written and directed by Gilroy (who co-wrote The Bourne Legacy), stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a drifter and petty thief who joins the underground world of Los Angeles freelance crime journalists that scour the city for gruesome crime-scene footage.

(US) Dir Jason Reitman

Contact Sierra/Affinity info@sierra-affinity.com

Reitman appears to have shunned a Telluride berth this year as the argument with Toronto rages on. The local hero’s presence is an annual staple at Toronto and word is this is something of a bounce-back after the sombre box-office misfire that was Labor Day. The satirical comedy features a sterling ensemble cast including Adam Sandler, Rosemarie DeWitt, Emma Thompson and Jennifer Garner.

October Gale (Can)

Contact Viacom18 Motion Pictures media@viacom18.com

Contact Paramount

paramount.com

Dir Ruba Nadda Patricia Clarkson stars as a grieving doctor living in a remote cabin who discovers a wounded man in a canoe being chased by a would-be killer (Tim Roth). The psychological thriller is directed by Nadda, whose Cairo Time won the best Canadian feature prize at TIFF in 2009.

Contact Myriad Pictures info@myriadpictures.com

August-September 2014 Screen International 43

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festival focus toronto

Phoenix (Ger) Dir Christian Petzold Barbara director Petzold renews his fruitful collaboration with actress Nina Hoss, who plays a concentration-camp survivor searching ravaged post-war Berlin for the husband who might have betrayed her to the Nazis.

Contact The Match Factory info@matchfactory.de

Preggoland (Can) Dir Jacob Tierney Montreal director Tierney, whose 2009 film The Trotsky was a hit on the festival circuit, returns with this satirical comedy-drama about a boozy live-athome thirtysomething played by Sonja Bennett (who also wrote the script), lying about being pregnant. James Caan also stars.

Contact Mongrel Media www.mongrelmedia.com

The Reach (US) Dir Jean-Baptiste Léonetti Based on Robb White’s bestselling novel, The Reach stars Michael Douglas and Jeremy Irvine in a cat-and-mouse thriller about a corporate high-roller who plays out a dangerous game with his impoverished young guide during a hunting trip in the Mojave Desert. Leonetti’s credits include the French-language Carré Blanc, selected for TIFF in 2011.

US contact CAA filmsales@caa.com; WME wma.com International contact Good Universe sjacobs@good-universe.com

Revenge Of The Green Dragons (US) Dirs Andrew Lau, Andrew Loo Executive produced by Martin Scorsese, Lau and Loo’s crime epic follows two

immigrant friends as they rise through the ranks of New York’s Chinese underworld in the 1980s. Lau was last in Toronto in 2010 with Legend Of The Fist: The Return Of Chen Zhen.

Contact IM Global info@imglobalfilm.com

A Second Chance (Den) Dir Susanne Bier Game Of Thrones star Nikolaj CosterWaldau plays a police officer and new father who makes a dubious moral decision when he sees a child endangered by his junkie parents. Zentropa produces A Second Chance (En Chance Til) from the director of Oscar-winning In A Better World. The Danish-language drama has already been sold to numerous territories including Germany (Prokino), Australia (Madman) and Japan (Longride).

Contact TrustNordisk info@trustnordisk.com

Top Five

AFM. Glatzer and Westmoreland previously impressed with Quinceanera while last year’s The Last Of Robin Hood saw a more muted response.

US contact CAA filmsales@caa.com International contact Memento Films International sales@memento-films.com

Shelter (US)

The Theory Of Everything (UK-US)

Dir Paul Bettany

Dir James Marsh

Jennifer Connelly and Anthony Mackie star in the directorial debut of UK actor Bettany (also Connelly’s husband) who wrote the film, which centres on two homeless people who, despite their different pasts, find strength and solace in each other.

The Man On Wire and Shadowdancer director tells the story of astrophysicist Stephen Hawking (Eddie Redmayne) and his wife Jane (Felicity Jones) in their struggle with his illness and celebration of his scientific achievements. Working Title and Focus Features produce (with backing from Universal) and eOne has Canadian rights while Universal Pictures International handles the international release.

US contact UTA unitedtalent.com; Cassian Elwes cassianelwes.com International contact Voltage Pictures sales@voltagepictures.com

Still Alice (US) Dirs Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland An eye-catching quartet of Julianne Moore, Kristen Stewart, Alec Baldwin and Kate Bosworth made this Killer Films drama about Alzheimer’s disease one of the hottest sellers at the 2013

US contact Focus Features focusfeatures.com International contact Universal Pictures International universalpicturesinternational.com

Time Out Of Mind (US) Dir Oren Moverman Richard Gere — also on board as a producer — stars as an elderly New Yorker forced into a homeless shelter who tries to reconnect with his estranged daughter (Jena Malone). Writer/director Moverman’s last film, Rampart, also premiered at Toronto.

himself as a serious actor. Scott Rudin produces.

US contact CAA filmsales@caa.com International contact FilmNation Entertainment info@wearefilmnation.com

Welcome To Me (US) Dir Shira Piven Kristen Wiig plays a woman with borderline personality disorder who wins a huge lottery jackpot and becomes an overnight celebrity, in Piven’s dark comedy. Piven (Jeremy’s sister) presents her second feature after Fully Loaded. The cast also features James Marsden, Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack.

US contact UTA unitedtalent.com; WME wma.com International contact Cargo Entertainment info@cargoentertainment.com

While We’re Young (US) Dir Noah Baumbach A frustrated middle-aged film-maker and his wife, played by Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts, become enamoured of a young hipster artist couple (Amanda Seyfried and Adam Driver) in Baumbach’s follow-up to Frances Ha, which played at TIFF in 2012.

US contact United Talent Agency unitedtalent.com International contact Film Nation Entertainment info@wearefilmnation.com

US contact Paradigm; WME wma.com ICM icmtalent.com International contact QED International info@qedintl.com

Top Five (US) Dir Chris Rock

Phoenix

44 Screen International August-September 2014

Rock writes, directs and stars alongside Rosario Dawson and Gabrielle Union in this dramedy about a comedian-turnedfilm star who is determined to prove

While We’re Young

www.screendaily.com

Kill Me Three Times

Heartbeat

Impunity

The Grump

Labyrinth Of Lies

CONTEMPORARY WORLD CINEMA

The Grump (Fin)

Itsi Bitsi (Den-Swe)

Dir Dome Karukoski

Dir Ole Christian Madsen

Don’t Breathe (Fr)

Karukoski’s neo-Nazi family drama Heart Of A Lion played at Toronto in 2013, and now the Finnish rising star returns with The Grump (Mielensapahoittaja), another family drama about a stubborn 80-yearold farmer who is forced to move in with his city-dwelling son and daughter-inlaw, and raises hell in the process. Based on the Finnish novel by Tuomas Kyrö.

The latest feature from Danish filmmaker and Toronto regular Madsen (Flame & Citron, Superclasico) is based on the events that led to the founding of Danish rock group Steppeulvene.

Dir Nino Kirtadze Georgia-born director Kirtadze picked up the best documentary prize at the European Film Awards in 2005 for The Pipeline Next Door. Her latest feature, Don’t Breathe (La Faille), combines fact and fiction in this dark comedy about a man whose life takes a downward spiral after a medical examination.

Contact The Yellow Affair miira@yellowaffair.com

Contact Deckert Distribution info@deckert-distribution.com

(Jap) Dir Ryuichi Hiroki

Heartbeat (Can)

Kabukicho Love Hotel (Sayonara Kabukicho) is an erotic drama from Japanese director Hiroki, whose credits include the award-winning 2003 feature Vibrator. It follows the stories of a group of employees and visitors at a ‘love hotel’ in Tokyo’s red-light district.

Félix And Meira (Can) Dir Maxime Giroux Martin Dubreuil (Les 7 Jours Du Talion) and Hadas Yaron (Fill The Void) star as a penniless French Canadian and a young married woman from Montreal’s orthodox Jewish community who fall in love despite their different backgrounds.

Giroux won the best Canadian short film prize at TIFF in 2006 for Les Jours.

Dir Andrea Dorfman Canadian film-maker Dorfman’s third fiction feature stars singer Tanya Davis as a young woman in Halifax who finds salvation from her dead-end job and personal life by returning to writing and playing music. Dorfman’s Love That Boy played at TIFF in 2003.

Contact The Match Factory info@matchfactory.de

debut feature from Italian actor turned director Ricciarelli, about a young prosecutor in post-war West Germany who investigates a conspiracy to cover up the Nazi pasts of well-known public figures.

Contact Beta Cinema beta@betacinema.com

The Lesson (Bul-Gr) Dir Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov

Kabukicho Love Hotel

Contact Nikkatsu international@nikkatsu.co.jp

Film-making duo Grozeva and Valchanov, who directed the 2012 European Film Awards nominated short Jump, make their debut feature The Lesson (Urok), a Bulgaria-set drama about a teacher on the brink of financial ruin.

Contact Abraxas Film abraxasfilm@abv.bg

Love In The Time Of Civil War (Can) Dir Rodrigue Jean

Contact Mongrel Media www.mongrelmedia.com

Kill Me Three Times (Aus)

Contact Urban Distribution International eric@urbandistrib.com

Impunity (S Afr) Dir Jyoti Mistry

Frailer (Neth)

Corruption and political intrigue are at the centre of The Bull On The Roof, director Mistry’s noir thriller about a special investigator and local detective who become embroiled in the gruesome murder of a cabinet minister’s daughter in post-apartheid South Africa. Alex McGregor and Bjorn Steinbach star.

Simon Pegg, Alice Braga and Luke Hemsworth star in this black comedy set in a small Australian town that becomes a hotbed for murder and blackmail, from Red Dog director Stenders.

TIFF Rising Star Alexandre Landry stars in Love In The Time Of Civil War (L’amour Au Temps De La Guerre Civile), a tough docudrama about young addicts who sell their bodies in Montreal’s Centre-Sud district. Montreal director Jean won the best Canadian feature film award at TIFF in 2008 for Lost Song.

Contact Cargo Entertainment info@cargoentertainment.com

Contact Les Films du 3 Mars www.f3m.ca

Labyrinth Of Lies (Ger)

Lulu (Arg)

Dir Giulio Ricciarelli

Dir Luis Ortega

Alexander Fehling stars in Labyrinth Of Lies (Im Labyrinth Des Schweigens), the

Argentinian director Ortega, whose Monobloc and The Dirty Saints both »

Dir Mijke de Jong Frailer (Brozer), the follow up to de Jong’s 1997 feature Broos, sees a group of sisters reunited when one of them is diagnosed with terminal cancer. The Dutch director’s Bluebird won the Generation Crystal Bear for best feature at Berlin in 2004.

Contact PRPL

info@prpl.nl

www.screendaily.com

Contact Shadowy Meadows Productions floschatt@yahoo.com

Dir Kriv Stenders

August-September 2014 Screen International 45

The Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin GmbH (DFFB) seeks to appoint, from 1st November 2014, a suitable applicant to the position of:

Director Scope of Position:

Requirements:

Applications should

The Director is the Managing Director of the DFFB. This leadership position comprises artistic and economic responsibility for the DFFB as the film school of the Federal State of Berlin.

The Director is the key player in shaping the DFFB’s academic and artistic profile and ensuring practical implementation of the school’s vision.

She/he oversees the course of studies, monitors and supervises the students’ training/education and is the contact person for student film projects.

The DFFB has extended its international focus over the last few years through cooperations and externally funded projects. The Director is expected to continue these partnerships and to be pro-active in furthering the DFFB’s internationalisation.

Particular talent for artistic work and proven pedagogical aptitude for teaching. Outstanding creative artistic practice in particular as a filmmaker and/or producer. International professional experience is advantageous.

be submitted, by

In addition, demonstrated entrepreneurial capability in leadership of a cultural or culture-related institution is vital. Alongside leadership ability, this position calls for excellent communication, teamwork and management skills.

The appointment is initially for a five-year period.

of the applicant’s

Fluent written and spoken German is essential.

September 30th 2014, along with the usual supporting documents and documentation professional career and teaching experience, to the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the DFFB: Chef der Senatskanzlei Berlin, Herrn Björn Böhning, Jüdenstr. 1, 10178 Berlin, Germany.

festival focus toronto

Margarita, With A Straw

screened at TIFF, this time focuses on two young urchins who turn the streets of Buenos Aires into their own magical playground.

Contact Ignacio Sarchi ignacio.sarchi@gmail.com

Margarita, With A Straw (India) Dir Shonali Bose Kalki Koechlin plays a Delhi university student and aspiring writer with cerebral palsy who leaves India for New York University in this film from the Indian director of acclaimed 2005 film Amu. Contact Viacom 18 Motion Pictures media@viacom18.com

Meet Me In Montenegro (US-Ger-Nor) Dir Alex Holdridge, Linnea Saasen Holdridge (In Search Of A Midnight Kiss) and Saasen direct and star in this drama about an independent film-maker who accidentally runs into an old flame while in Berlin.

Contact Cinetic Media info@cineticmedia.com

Teen Lust

hiking trip. His debut feature, The Mountain, screened in Berlin’s Panorama section in 2011.

Contact NDM

Red Rose (Fr-Gr-Iran) Dir Sepideh Farsi The Iranian director of 2010 film The House Under The Water returns with this story about a middle-aged man and a democracy activist debating the future of Iran, which combines scripted scenes with real-life footage from Iran’s 2009 Green Revolution.

Contact UDI — Urban Distribution International eric@urbandistrib.com

Sand Dollars (Dom Rep-Arg-Mex) Dirs Laura Amelia Guzman, Israel Cardenas Mexico-based husband-and-wife directing team Guzman and Cardenas’ latest joint feature Sand Dollars (Dolares De Arena), following Carmita in 2013, centres around the relationship between a young local girl and her wealthy European lover, played by Geraldine

Mirage (Hun-Slo) Dir Szabolcs Hajdu From the Hungarian director of the 2010 film Bibliotheque Pascal, Mirage (Delibab) is a drama about a mysterious wanderer (Isaach De Bankole) who finds himself living in a homestead in the Hungarian plains.

Contact Aurora Dominicana produccion@auroradominicana.com

Teen Lust (Can) Dir Blaine Thurier The fourth feature from writer-director Thurier (also keyboardist for rock band The New Pornographers), is a comedy about a student, played by Jesse Carere, who is keen to lose his virginity before his parents’ satanic cult sacrifices him to the devil. Thurier’s previous credits include Low Self-Esteem Girl.

Contact Arclight Films lina@arclightfilms.com

Tokyo Fiancée (Bel-Can-Fr) Dir Stefan Liberski A young Belgian woman living in Tokyo embarks on a relationship with her Japanese student in the fourth feature from Liberski (his last was Baby Balloon), an adaptation of the novel by Amélie Nothomb.

Contact Films Distribution bef@filmsdistribution.com

The Valley (Fr-Ger-Leb) Dir Ghassan Salhab The Valley (Al-Wadi) is the sixth feature from Senegalese director Salhab. Following a car crash, a man finds himself held hostage at an illegal drug production factory in the middle of Lebanon’s isolated Beqaa Valley.

Contact Doc & Film International g.gallier@docandfilm.com

Venice (Cuba-Col) Dir Kiki Alvarez The latest project from the Cuban director of 2011 film Marina focuses on female friendship. Venice (Venecia) follows three hair-salon employees as they hit the town looking for excitement in lesser-known parts of Havana.

Contact Habanero Film Sales acalvino@habanerofilmsales.com

Voice Over (Chile) Dir Cristian Jimenez Voice Over (La Voz En Off), the third feature from Chilean director Jimenez, whose 2011 film Bonsai screened in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, is about a married woman who leaves her husband. She returns to her parents’ home but finds a situation far from the peace and quiet she had imagined. sur@jirafa.cl

Who Am I — No System Is Safe (Ger) Dir Baran bo Odar The anticipated second feature from Swiss-German director Odar, who made waves with his crime thriller debut The Silence in 2011, is another fast-paced thriller about a young computer geek (played by Oh Boy actor Tom Schilling) who joins a subversive hacker group.

Out Of Nature (Nor) Dir Ole Giaever

www.screendaily.com

Chaplin, in a Dominican Republic seaside town.

Contact Jirafa

Contact Hungarian National Film Fund filmalap@filmalap.hu

Norwegian director Giaever also plays the lead in his second film Out Of Nature (Mot Naturen), a comic drama about the uncensored thoughts of a man on a solo

fm@mantarraya.com

Venice

Out Of Nature

Contact TrustNordisk info@trustnordisk.com

August-September 2014 Screen International 47

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festival focus toronto

The Face Of An Angel

[REC] 4: Apocalypse

Big Game

Cub

Masters

Midnight Madness

1001 Grams (Nor-Ger-Fr)

[REC] 4: Apocalypse (Sp)

Dir Bent Hamer

Dir Jaume Balaguero

An offbeat comedy from Toronto regular Hamer (Kitchen Stories, Home For Christmas) about a work-obsessed Norwegian lab technician (Ane Dahl Torp) who finds her life thrown out of kilter when she attends a science conference in Paris.

The latest in Balaguero’s popular Spanish [REC] horror series. This time the usual ragtag band of survivors have to fight off the infected hordes while confined to a high-security facility in the bowels of an ocean liner.

Contact Les Films du Losange a.valentin@filmsdulosange.fr

Contact Filmax International filmaxint@filmax.com

The Face Of An Angel (UK)

Big Game (Fin-UK-Ger)

Dir Michael Winterbottom

Dir Jalmari Helander

Toronto regular Winterbottom, who was last in town with The Trip To Italy, uses the Amanda Knox case as a loose inspiration for this story about a UK film-maker questioning his own life priorities when he sees the aftermath of an Italian murder trial. Daniel Brühl, Kate Beckinsale and Cara Delevingne lead the cast. Winterbottom and Andrew Eaton’s Revolution Films, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, produce.

Samuel L Jackson stars in this actionadventure tale about a US president whose plane is shot down by terrorists; a 13-year-old boy helps him during a chase in the wilderness. Finnish director Helander’s genre hit Rare Exports also played in Toronto. Big Game has already sold to eOne for the UK, Ascot Elite for German-speaking territories and Nordisk for Scandinavia.

Contact WestEnd Films eve@westendfilms.com

Trick Or Treaty? (Can) Dir Alanis Obomsawin

US contact Altitude & WME filmsales@wmeentertainment.com International contact Altitude mikerunagall@altitudefilmsales.com

Beats Of The Antonov

The Editor (Can) Dirs Matthew Kennedy, Adam Brooks Two members of Winnipeg’s film collective Astron-6 have created this homage to the Italian giallo genre, centring around the greatest editor in the world who becomes the prime suspect in a murder case. Kennedy and Brooks also star in the film, which was partly crowdfunded through Indiegogo.

Contact Park Entertainment mail@parkentertainment.com

Tusk (US)

Beats Of The Antonov (Sud-S Afr) Dir Hajooj Kuka This documentary centres on Sudanese farmers, herders and rebels of the Blue Nile and Nuba Mountain regions, who defiantly celebrate their heritage and tend their lands in the face of a government bombing campaign. It is backed by IDFA’s Bertha Fund.

Contact Big World Cinema steven@bigworld.co.za

Iraqi Odyssey

Dir Kevin Smith It seemed Smith might abandon film in 2011 after his anti-Hollywood rant at Sundance. Ironically, it was through his newfound love of podcasting that he read an ad inspiring this horror tale, set in the backwoods of Canada, about a man who turns his house guest into a walrus. Justin Long and Haley Joel Osment lead the cast. A24 has US rights.

Contact XYZ Films

TIFF DOCS

joe@xyxfilms.com

(Iraq-Swi-Ger-UAE) Dir Samir Acclaimed Iraqi expatriate film-maker Samir returns with a documentary that traces the migrations of his family over more than half a century. Samir’s Snow White (2005) and Filou (1988) both played in competition at Locarno.

Contact Autlook Film Sales welcome@autlookfilms.com

Cub (Bel) Dir Jonas Govaerts

Veteran documentarian Obomsawin follows a campaign to raise awareness in Native communities about the history of agreements with the Canadian government in her latest documentary for the National Film Board of Canada. The diretor’s credits include Kanehsatake: 270 Years Of Resistance and Hi-Ho Mistahey!, which played at TIFF last year.

Belgian writer-director Govaerts makes his feature debut on horror Cub, in which a troupe of young scouts is stalked by a psychopathic huntsman. Govaerts, who has made award-winning shorts including Of Cats & Women, is repped by WME. The cinematographer is Nicolas Karakatsanis (Bullhead).

Contact National Film Board of Canada www.nfb.ca

Contact Kinology gmareschi@kinology.eu

48 Screen International August-September 2014

Sunshine Superman

www.screendaily.com

city to city

Monsoon (Can)

This Is My Land (Fr)

Waste Land (Bel)

Dir Sturla Gunnarsson

Dir Tamara Erde

Dir Pieter Van Hees

The Iceland-born, Canada-based director of documentary Force Of Nature, which won the TIFF People’s Choice Award in 2010, returns with this part road movie about the weather system that unites the cultures of India.

French-Israeli film-maker Erde visits six independently run Israeli and Palestinian schools over one academic year, looking at how the history of the contested region is taught to young pupils. Erde previously directed the short Jericho and 50-minute documentary Very Heavy Stones.

A taciturn Brussels homicide detective (Jérémie Renier) finds his life unravelling as his partner becomes unexpectedly pregnant while he is investigating a case involving a death-obsessed dealer in Congolese cult statues. The cop is drawn further into the disturbing underbelly of the city. The director’s past films include Dirty Mind and Left Bank.

The Price We Pay (Can) Dir Harold Crooks The Price We Pay (La Face Cachée De l’Impot) is the latest documentary from Crooks, whose previous credits include The Corporation and most recently 2011’s Surviving Progress. This time he exposes the realities of big business tax avoidance that has seen multinationals deprive governments of trillions of dollars in tax revenues.

Contact Filmoption International email@filmoption.com

Sunshine Superman (US-Nor-UK) Dir Marah Strauch A documentary portrait of Carl Boenish, the father of BASE jumping, the extreme skydiving-related sport. Alex Gibney is an executive producer of Strauch’s feature directorial debut.

Contact The Salt Company info@salt-co.com

Tales Of The Grim Sleeper (US-UK) Dir Nick Broomfield The veteran documentarian, whose credits include Kurt & Courtney and Aileen: Life And Death Of A Serial Killer, turns his attention to the arrest of Lonnie Franklin Jr, the man on trial for the serial murders that terrorised South Central Los Angeles over 25 years.

Contact Submarine Entertainment www.submarine.com

The Wanted 18 (Can-Pal-Fr) Dir Amer Shomali, Paul Cowan

Contact Iliade & Films iliade@iliadefilms.com

The Yes Men Are Revolting (US) Dirs Laura Nix, The Yes Men It has been 11 years since The Yes Men’s first documentary, titled The Yes Men, which also premiered at TIFF. The new film follows the now middle-aged activist-pranksters, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, as they continue to raise awareness of climate change. Nix, whose credits include Syria-set documentary The Light In Her Eyes, produced the first film.

Contact National Film Board of Canada www.nfb.ca

www.screendaily.com

Contact 9ers Entertainment jelee@niners.co.kr

Scarlet Innocence (S Kor) Dir Yim Pil-sung

Spring (US) Dirs Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead The Resolution directors and VHS: Viral contributors jet into Toronto to present their latest work, about a beleaguered young American man who flees to Italy where an affair with a Mediterranean beauty uncovers monsters.

Contact XYZ Films

Cart (Ka-teu), the fourth feature from the South Korean director of Sisters On The Road, follows a group of employees at a discount retail store who unite against the decision to lay off contract workers.

joe@xyxfilms.com

Yim’s 2012 The Doomsday Book was named best international film at Fantasia International Film Festival. Now the director returns with this modern-day adaptation of a classic Korean fairy tale about a university professor, gradually succumbing to blindness, who becomes embroiled in an obsessive love affair.

Contact CJ Entertainment s sales@cj-entertainment.com n

Contact Cinetic Media info@cineticmedia.com

Vanguard The Duke Of Burgundy (UK) Dir Peter Strickland

Luna

Shrew’s Nest

Strickland’s follow up to Berberian Sound Studio is a dark melodrama that follows the intense relationship between two women, played by Sidse Babett Knudsen (Borgen) and Chiara D’Anna.

Contact Protagonist Pictures info@protagonistpictures.com

Luna (UK) Dir Dave McKean MirrorMask director McKean blends live action and animation in the story of four people whose weekend idyll in an isolated English seaside home becomes an opportunity for spiritual healing. Keith Griffiths (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives) is one of the producers.

Contact

Acclaimed Palestinian artist Shomali has joined forces with veteran Montreal director Cowan for this documentary that combines stop-motion animation and interviews. It tells the strange-buttrue story of the Israeli army’s pursuit of 18 cows on a Palestinian farm that were declared a threat to the national security of Israel.

Contact Be For Films pamela@beforfilms.com

Dir Boo Ji-young

Profiles by Mark Adams, Sarah Cooper, Jeremy Kay, Wendy Mitchell, Michael Rosser and Andreas Wiseman

Contact KinoSmith info@kinosmith.com

Cart (S Kor)

Spring

www.lunathemovie.com

Shrew’s Nest (Sp) Dirs Juanfer Andres, Esteban Roel Genre favourite Alex de la Iglesia produces this Misery-style Spanish thriller in which an unlucky neighbour finds himself trapped with two shut-in sisters after a debilitating fall.

Contact Film Factory Entertainment info@filmfactory.es

Tales Of The Grim Sleeper

August-September 2014 Screen International 49

2014 Venice international Film FestiVal – Venice classics selection

ALTMAN DIREcTOR/ PRODucER: RON MANN

tiFF 2014 Gala Presentations

MAPS TO THE STARS DIREcTOR: DAvID cRONENbERG PRODucERS: MARTIN KATz, SAïD bEN SAïD, MIcHEL MERKT

tiFF 2014 sPecial Presentations

tiFF 2014 DiscoVerY

OCTObER gALE

WET bUM

DIREcTOR: RubA NADDA

DIREcTOR: LINDSAy MAcKAy

PRODucER: DANIEL IRON

PRODucERS: PAuLA DEvONSHIRE, LAuREN GRANT, SEAN bucKLEy

ONTARIO FILMMAKERS – MAKING FILMS FOR THE WORLD Look for these titles coming to a festival near you. OMDC is helping to create a thriving, billion-dollar industry and a wealth of opportunity. Be part of it. OMDC.on.ca

We’ve got it going

ONTARIO TERRITORY FOCUS Filming on the streets of Toronto

A higher power Ontario follows only Los Angeles and New York as one of North America’s biggest production hubs. John Hazelton looks at what’s driving the boom, from incentives and infrastructure to talent and global ambitions

O

ntario is Canada’s billiondollar province, at least where film and television production is concerned.

For each of the last three years, production in the province — Canada’s largest by population and second largest by area, with an expanse equivalent to France and Spain combined — has con-

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tributed more than $920m (c$1bn) to the local economy.

And that makes Ontario — which over those three years has hosted features including the remake of Poltergeist, Pacific Rim, The F Word and Enemy as well as TV series such as Orphan Black, Reign and The Strain — the third biggest production hub in North America, trail-

ing only Los Angeles and New York.

Long-time industry players point out that, as home to most of Canada’s TV broadcasters as well as technology companies including IMAX and VFX software pioneer Side Effects, Ontario and its biggest city Toronto have been important production centres for decades, not just years. »

August-September 2014 Screen International 51

Alamy

n OVERVIEW n NEW TALENTS

Territory focus Ontario

Clockwise from right: Pinewood Toronto, which opened in 2008, boasts 12 stages including the largest purpose-built sound stage in North America; on the set of Cosmopolis; the Guillermo del Toro produced TV series The Strain; Denis Villeneuve’s Enemy

“The reality is that there’s been an abundance of film and television production in Toronto for 30 years,” says producer Robert Lantos, who relocated from Montreal to Toronto in 1983 when he co-founded groundbreaking Canadian indie Alliance Entertainment. “So over that period of time the jobs were sufficiently plentiful to keep a lot of people at home, as opposed to leaving town.”

As a result, says Lantos, who is currently shooting Atom Egoyan’s drama Remember in Toronto, “There’s a very wide talent pool [in Ontario], much more so now than 30 years ago, but even then it was a rich talent pool, both in front of the camera and behind it.”

Crucial support The impressive growth of Ontario’s industry — total production spend has increased from just $311m (c$338m) in 1993 to $1.1bn (c$1.15bn) in 2013 — has been fostered by the province’s widely active support bodies and generous tax breaks.

Film and TV support provided by provin-

‘You can do anything in Toronto. We’ve closed down major bridges over a holiday weekend’ Jeremy Bolt, producer

cial government agency the Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC) includes the Ontario Film Commission, the Industry Development Program, which channels funding for trade organisation events, and the Export Fund — Film and Television, which helps producers participate in export activities.

The OMDC Film Fund backs features from Ontario producers and since 2005 has invested a total of $27m (c$29m) in 212 projects, among them Midnight’s Children, Cosmopolis and Take This Waltz.

To help the Ontario industry reach out internationally, OMDC, in partnership with the City of Toronto and trade group FilmOntario, maintains a full-time marketing presence in Los Angeles. During Toronto International Film Festival, the corporation stages the Producers Lab — which allows Canadian and European producers to explore the potential for co-production projects — and the International Financing Forum.

Ontario tax credits for film and television Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit (OFTTC) A 35% refundable tax credit on Ontario labour expenditures for film and television productions made by Ontario-based Canadian companies.

Bonuses for first-time producers and productions shot in Ontario but outside Toronto. To be eligible, a project must pass a Canadian content test or be an official treaty co-production.

Ontario Production Services Tax Credit (OPSTC) A 25% refundable tax credit on Ontario production expenditures — both labour and non-labour costs as well as all post-production — for film and TV projects made by Canadian or foreigncontrolled companies. Project budget must be at least $920,000 (c$1m) for a feature, at least $184,000 (c$200,000) per episode for a television series with

52 Screen International August-September 2014

episodes of more than 30 minutes and at least $92,000 (c$100,000) per episode for a series with episodes of 30 minutes or less.

Ontario Computer Animation and Special Effects Tax Credit (OCASE) A 20% refundable tax credit on Ontario labour expenditures for digital animation and visual effects created in Ontario for film and TV productions.

Through eight annual editions of the forum, says OMDC director of industry development Kristine Murphy, “we’ve had close to 50 projects go into production. Not all of them in Ontario, but it’s a good opportunity to connect producers to the money or the distributor that they’re looking for.”

Ontario’s film and TV tax incentives (see box, below) — the 35% credit for Canadian productions and the 25% production services credit aimed primarily at foreign productions — were first introduced in 1996. But the production services credit was crucially enhanced in 2009, when, to match the credit in rival province Quebec, it was extended to cover not just labour but other qualifying costs as well. At the same time, Ontario introduced its 20% computer animation and special effects credit, for which even projects shot outside Ontario can qualify.

The Ontario credits have no cap and no sunset and they can be ‘stacked’ with the corresponding federal film and TV credits for Canadian and foreign productions (though the federal credits then only cover costs after the provincial credit has been applied).

In 2012-13, Ontario handed out $136m (c$148m) of Canadian credits to 356 projects and another $168m (c$183m) of production services credits to 127 productions.

This year’s totals could be even higher thanks to the recent move by Quebec authorities to reduce that province’s film and TV credits by 20%.

Ontario, says Murphy, “is the only [Canadian] jurisdiction that has never rolled back any incentives it has introduced. That makes us an incredibly attractive jurisdiction.”

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‘Ontario is the only Canadian jurisdiction that’s never rolled back any incentives.

That makes us an incredibly attractive jurisdiction’ Kristine Murphy, OMDC

The make-up of the Ontario industry has changed in recent years, partly as a result of the province’s incentives and support mechanisms, partly because of shifting trends in the global production industry.

Last year’s total Ontario production spend of $1.1bn (c$1.15bn) was slightly down on 2012’s peak level and the total for 2011. But there were increases and decreases in different types of production in the province.

Television production, which makes up 80% of Ontario spending, was down 13% to $843m (c$916m). More foreign TV series were shot in the province last year, but the amount they spent was down because of a trend towards shorter-run series.

Feature production spending increased fractionally to $213m (c$232m). The number of domestic features shooting decreased but the total spend was up, to $123m (c$134m). And while the number of foreign features was up, the total spend on them was significantly down, to $89.7m (c$97.7m), reflecting a lack of big-budget Hollywood projects shooting in Ontario.

The place to visit Yet foreign production remains an important part of the Ontario film economy and some foreign film-makers are regular visitors to the province.

UK-born, Los Angeles-based Jeremy Bolt, producing partner to director Paul WS Anderson, has made three of his Resident Evil franchise films as well as historical action drama Pompeii (all set up as official Canadian co-productions) in Ontario. Bolt praises the province for its variety of relatively inexpen-

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sive locations, technical expertise and ease of operation. “By the time we had got to Resident Evil 5, we had a very good family of technicians functioning at a very high level,” he says.

“You can do anything in Toronto,” adds Bolt. “We’ve closed down major bridges, which affected the whole city over a holiday weekend. We’ve closed down the equivalent of Piccadilly Circus in Toronto.”

In addition to creating local jobs and revenue, the influx of foreign productions has also helped to develop Ontario’s film-making infrastructure of studios and post-production facilities.

“There’s no way we could create this infrastructure with just local Canadian films,” says Toronto-based Don Carmody, who has been a producer on all four of Bolt’s Ontario films

‘There’s been an abundance of film and TV production in Toronto for 30 years’ Robert Lantos, producer

Features currently shooting in Ontario Inland Hamilton-Mehta Beeba Productions Prod David Hamilton Dir Deepa Mehta

The Rainbow Kid Exec prods Colin Brunton, Andrew Barnsley Dir Kire Paputts

Natasha Natasha Films Prods Bill Marks, Deborah Marks, Julia Rosenberg Dir David Bezmozgis

Remember Remember Productions Prods Robert Lantos, Ari Lantos Dir Atom Egoyan

Pay The Ghost PTG Productions Ontario Prod Patrick Newall Dir Uli Edel

Total Frat Movie Digerati Films Prods Robert Wertheimer, Brian Ross, Bob Sanitsky, Jonathan Bronfman Dir Warren Sonoda

Pixels Arcade Productions/Sony Prod Adam Moos Dir Chris Columbus

Zoom Rhombus Media (Zoom) Prods Niv Fichman, Andrea Barata Ribeiro Dir Pedro Morelli

and helped dozens of other US and European projects on their Canadian shoots.

In particular, increased foreign production, coupled with the special effects tax credit, has created additional work for Ontario’s visual effects and digital animation sector, which — according to trade body Computer Animation Studios of Ontario — is expanding at a 17% compound annual growth rate.

Dennis Berardi, president and VFX supervisor of Toronto digital studio Mr X, says his company — which has worked on most of Bolt’s films, as well as Noah and Anchorman: The Legend Continues — now receives around half of its work from domestic productions and half from foreign ones. “My challenge has been to get producers and film-makers past the idea that we are just a tax credit place,” says Berardi.

In fact, he adds, “I wouldn’t have any problem if the tax credit went away. It would be a great equalizer and you’d find that talent rose to the top. I would like to think it’s my talent and the hard work of the artists here that have earned our way into a global marketplace.”

The next wave Whether the Ontario industry can continue on the growth curve it has been following for the past 20 years may depend on both internal and external factors.

The province’s production infrastructure continues to strengthen, most recently with the opening in 2008 of Pinewood Toronto Studios, whose 12 stages include the largest purpose-built sound stage in North America.

Host to Carrie, Robocop, Pacific Rim and several other projects from producer-director Guillermo del Toro, Pinewood has made Ontario a more feasible destination for bigbudget Hollywood productions.

The future of Ontario’s film and TV tax incentives, meanwhile, appears to be secure given the recent majority win by the Liberal Party — the party that originally introduced the incentives nearly two decades ago — in the provincial general election.

Also important to the industry’s future will be the extent to which local and foreign production can co-exist and thrive.

For Ontario producers, says Lantos, increased foreign production in the province is “a two-edged sword”.

“The good news is that it helps build more experienced crews. And it creates an abundance of equipment and technology. And those crews and that technology is then here for domestic production to use,” he notes.

“The less good news is that having a lot of Hollywood productions in Toronto results in significantly increased costs. Because for a big-budget Hollywood movie, Toronto is still a bargain compared to Los Angeles. So for domestic productions that don’t have those s kinds of budgets, that creates a challenge.” n

August-September 2014 Screen International 53

Territory focus Ontario

Telling tales These four Toronto-based film-makers all have world premieres in Toronto’s Discovery section. John Hazelton talks to the rising stars

We Were Wolves

Jordan Canning Scr/dir/prod We Were Wolves Jordan Canning didn’t wait for an invitation to make her feature debut. “For a few years now I’ve had a couple of features in development, and development can take a long time,” says the Newfoundlandborn, Toronto-based film-maker. “I really needed to make my first feature and the only way that was going to happen soon was for me to just do it myself.”

The result of that approach is We Were Wolves, a drama Canning directed, produced and co-wrote with Steve Cochran, about two estranged brothers who return to their father’s isolated lakehouse after his death and struggle to come to terms with the past.

Canning previously made more than a dozen shorts — including award-winners Countdown, Not Over Easy and Seconds

Jordan Canning

and Cannes 2014 premiere The Tunnel — basing herself in St John’s, Newfoundland, and then in Toronto after attending the Directors’ Lab at The Canadian Film Centre. “I didn’t go to film school. I learned how to make films by making a lot of films,” Canning says. “That was the best way to learn and make mistakes and make a better film the next time.”

We Were Wolves was the right step for practical as well as creative reasons, Canning says. “I had always wanted to write a story about brothers, but that was about as much as we thought this through when we started. More so it was shaping it around a location and a cast we knew we could get and wanted to work with.”

Canning and her eight-person crew “lived on an island together for two weeks and everybody was doing five different jobs. It was probably the most liberating shoot any of us had ever been on.

You could really just focus on the story and the performances.”

Canning’s next project will probably be a second series of web sci-fi comedy Space Riders: Division Earth. But she also has a couple of features in the works.

Oddly Flowers, a magic-realist comedy based on award-winning novel Come, Thou Tortoise, might take some time to set up, she concedes. But Almost Thirty, a ‘coming-of-a-later-age’ comedy, could follow the We Were Wolves model.

“You can’t make every film with 10 people on your crew, but you can make certain kinds of films and I’m definitely going to make a few more of those.”

54 Screen International August-September 2014

Igor Drljaca Prod In Her Place Igor Drljaca is one half of a multicultural film-making team in one of the world’s most multicultural cities. Born in Sarajevo, Drljaca (pronounced Derl-ya-cha) emigrated to Canada during the mid1990s Bosnian war. He was at York Uni-

Igor Drljaca

versity film school in Toronto — where almost 50% of the population is foreignborn — when he met second-generation Korean-Canadian Albert Shin. The two formed Timelapse Pictures in 2008, and have, in Drljaca’s words, been “watching each other’s backs” ever since.

“We’re definitely exploring similar topics,” says Drljaca of the team’s work to date. “With him, it’s more exploring the cultural background that he has not had much contact with. With me, it’s exploring what happens to immigrants forced to leave a place due to a conflict or the country collapsing.”

Drljaca made his feature debut in 2012 as writer-director of Bosnia-set Krivina, which he and Shin produced. Shin wrote and directed his first feature, Point Traverse, in 2010 and followed that with Toronto entry In Her Place, which he produced with Drljaca and Yoon Hyun Chan.

The Korean-language drama concerns a mysterious woman who arrives at a farm in South Korea and is taken in by an old woman and her odd teenage daughter. “The film deals with a particular stigma attached to Koreans adopting kids,” the producer says. “The story really touched Albert because of the absurdity surrounding that issue.”

Given the subject matters, it is not surprising that up to now the two multihyphenates have made their films on very small budgets, with backing coming mostly from arts support groups rather than the commercial film industry. And even if the budgets increase in future, says Drljaca, the team’s sensibility will remain intact. “Right now we’re just starting to get more industry support,” he says.

Future projects — like The Waiting Room, a drama, which Drljaca will direct and Shin will produce, set in Toronto’s Yugoslav diaspora — may be bigger in scope but they will keep their nuanced and artistic approach. “We’re not interested in making films for hire,” Drljaca adds.

And the two Timelapse partners will continue to work as a team, alternating producing and directing duties, and even helping to shape each other’s scripts.

In Her Place

www.screendaily.com

Lindsay MacKay Scr-dir Wet Bum Although she has been living in Los Angeles, writer-director Lindsay MacKay returned to her native Ontario to shoot Wet Bum, her first feature.

“It’s based on my childhood to a degree,” MacKay explains. “So coming back to Ontario to make it just felt right to me.”

With a script that was a top 10 finalist in Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope Screenwriting Competition, the drama, set in a small northern town, is about a 14-year-old girl who, when forced to work in a nursing home, comes to learn about growing old.

The project’s local roots were strengthened when it won backing from Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Film Fund and became the first production shot at Pinewood Toronto under the studio’s Emerging Filmmakers initiative.

Jeffrey St Jules Scr-dir Bang Bang Baby It took Jeffrey St Jules nearly a decade to get Bang Bang Baby from page to screen.

The Nova Scotia-born writer-director says he persisted with the project — a sci-fi musical, set in the 1960s, about a small-town teenager, her rock star idol and the disturbing effects of a leak at a nearby chemical plant — because he wanted his feature debut to reflect the sensibility of its maker.

“I thought it was important for the first film to have my voice in it,” says St Jules.

“I didn’t think it would be helpful to try to make something to fit the market or because it might be easier to get made.”

St Jules’ sensibility had been illustrated by the series of shorts he made while attending film school at Montreal’s Concordia University and then The Canadian Film Centre’s Directors’ Lab in Toronto. The award-winning shorts included The Sadness Of Johnson Joe Jangles, Sundance entry The Tragic Story Of Nling and 3D documentary Let The Daylight Into The Swamp, all three of which

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Wet Bum

MacKay’s career also began in Toronto, where she went to York University’s film school. But she moved to Los Angeles to get her masters at the American Film Institute and it was Clear Blue, the award-winning short she made as her thesis film, that began to earn her the industry attention that helped Wet Bum get off the ground.

“There’s something about doing slightly well and getting recognition in the States that makes it easier to get work in Canada,” she says, “which is an inter-

had their premieres at the Toronto festival.

St Jules began to develop Bang Bang Baby in 2005, when he became the first Canadian to be selected for the Cannes Cinéfondation Residence programme in Paris. But with its unusual mix of genres, the project did not come together as quickly as hoped.

“When I came back from the Residence, I thought I’d be making a feature right away,” St Jules recalls. “But it’s very difficult to get a feature made. So I decided to just keep making shorts. There’s quite a

Bang Bang Baby

esting paradox. I went there, had some success and it was easier to come back and get financing in Ontario.”

Now MacKay wants to continue her career in both the US and her home country. “I’m very proud to be Canadian and it’s so funny how living in the States makes you even more proud of where you come from,” she says.

But, she adds, “I’m lucky enough to have both connections and I would like to stay working in both areas, because both have been very good to me.”

Her next project could be a feature version of Clear Blue, that, compared to Wet Bum, would be “bigger in terms of mythology and scope”.

Not that bigger projects are part of any plan. “I’m not looking to make huge blockbusters at this point in my career because I think that’s a lot of pressure,” says MacKay. “As a film-maker I’m focused on things that interest me and things I’m working through, and hopefully that touches other people as well.”

few places [in Canada] you can get funding for shorts and I think it’s important to do a lot of that before going into a big feature with all that money involved.”

Eventually, St Jules teamed up with producer Dan Bekerman and his Torontobased Scythia Films and Bang Bang Baby secured funding — from Telefilm Canada, the Harold Greenberg Fund, private sources and tax credits — and a cast headed by Jane Levy and Justin Chatwin, both from the US version of edgy cable comedy Shameless.

Now St Jules, who has been based in Toronto since 2003, is starting work on a period murder mystery that might, thanks in part to the city’s lively film culture, reach the screen more quickly than Bang Bang Baby did.

Having experienced some of Canada’s smaller production hubs, this Ontario transplant finds that in Toronto “people work with each other because they’re interested in that type of film, not just because they’re friends. So it’s not as tight-knit a community. But that can be a positive thing sometimes, because you’re s focusing on the work”. n

August-September 2014 Screen International 55

IN PICTURES NFTS GALA

Strength in diversity The National Film and Television School Gala raised funds to enable greater opportunities for women, black, Asian and minority ethnic people, the LGBT community and people with disabilities to study at the NFTS through its scholarships and outreach programme. Old Billingsgate Market, London hosted the June 18 event

1

3

2

6

7 GUEST LIST 1 Gala committee chair Floella Benjamin with actor Nitin Ganatra

6 National Film And Television School director Nik Powell

2 Producer Sue Vertue

7 Writer Lolita Chakrabarti with actor Adrian Lester

3 Gala host and writer/ actor Lenny Henry 4 Producer Duncan Kenworthy

4

56 Screen International August-September 2014

5

8

8 TV presenter Anita Rani and writer/actor Adil Ray

5 Sajid Javid, secretary of state for culture, media and sport

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Would like to thank its excellent lawyers who obtained a

COUNTY COURT JUDGEMENT

On 17 June 2014 against

PRESS ON FEATURES LIMITED

As recorded at Companies House, the sole director and shareholder of PRESS ON FEATURES LIMITED is

Simon McPhillips

REVIEWS Highlights of the month’s new films in Review. For full reviews coverage, see Screendaily.com

Reviews in brief Deepsea Challenge 3D Dirs John Bruno, Andrew Wight, Ray Quint. US-Aus. 2014. 90mins

James Cameron is in front of the camera for Deepsea Challenge 3D, a documentary about the Titanic director’s latest underwater adventure that is interesting enough as a submarine procedural but light on drama or spectacle. This National Geographic production will need to make the most of its 3D cinematography and Cameron’s name to have much of a chance in theatrical release. It should fare better on smaller screens. Directed by VFX veteran Bruno, Australian explorer-filmmaker Wight and Australian producer-director Quint, Deepsea Challenge 3D follows Cameron and his team on their quest to pull off the first solo voyage to the bottom of the seven-mile-deep Mariana Trench.

John Hazelton CONTACT PANORAMA MEDIA www.filmpanorama.com

The Expendables 3 Dir Patrick Hughes. US. 2014. 126mins

Big guns, big explosions and big muscles, The Expendables 3 serves up the expected mish-mash of blazing action, stunt scenes, testosterone and a handful of amusing asides, and while there is perhaps too much repetition and exposition, it is a film that delivers exactly the demands of its hardcore fanbase. The hefty cast of action stars lumbers into battle with a certain macho glee, but the bloodletting is downplayed as the franchise seeks to lure the youth market. In comes Mel Gibson, this time round, to deliver an impressively judged bad-guy psycho performance that is up there with his onscreen loopiness in the Lethal Weapon series.

Mark Adams CONTACT NU IMAGE/MILLENNIUM FILMS www.millenniumfilms.com

Step Up All In Dir Trish Sie. US. 2014. 112mins

The fifth entry in the Step Up franchise, originally top-lined by Channing Tatum, could use a booster shot of charisma. Much amazing dance talent is again given dazzling showcase, but the sporadic bursts of cathartic joyfulness are fewer and further between than in any movie in the series — proof once more that a film needs meaningful connective tissue between what could otherwise suffice as a series of YouTube video clips. This entry — in which the dancers head to Las Vegas — feels even more pro forma than any of its predecessors, which is saying something. The film’s $6.5m US debut is the lowest of the series.

Brent Simon CONTACT UNIVERSAL/LIONSGATE

58 Screen International August-September 2014

Hector And The Search For Happiness Dir Peter Chelsom. UK-Ger-Can. 2014. 114mins

One man’s quest to find the meaning of life is transformed into a sweetly sentimental tearjerker in Hector And The Search For Happiness. The long-planned screen adaptation of Francois Lelord’s 2002 novel is pitched somewhere between the fuzzy lollipop epiphanies of Eat Pray Love and the daredevil globe-trotting of The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty.

The popularity of the novel in Europe should create a fanbase for the film but its biggest commercial asset is Simon Pegg, who rises to the challenge in a dramatic role that is more demanding than anything he has played previously.

Pegg’s box-office track record outside high-profile franchises (Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, the Cornetto trilogy) has been patchy, with the welcome for Run, Fat Boy, Run matched by the disappointments of Burke & Hare and A Fantastic Fear Of Everything. Hector could also wrongfoot Pegg fans expecting a more obviously comic vehicle, creating a tricky marketing challenge for distributors.

Hector (Pegg) is a middle-aged psychiatrist with the guileless naïveté of Stan Laurel. He is currently sleepwalking through a London life that includes professional success and a contented relationship with his attentive partner Clara (Rosamund Pike). Something is missing and so he embarks on a voyage of self-discovery to research what makes people happy.

Armed with a notebook and a childlike curiosity, his quest takes him from Shanghai to Africa and Los Angeles via encounters with wealthy banker Edward (Stellan Skarsgard), a Buddhist monk (Togo Igawa), arms dealer Diego (Jean Reno), old flame Agnes (Toni

Collette) and psychiatric guru Professor Coleman (Christopher Plummer).

It is a rambling, picaresque journey marked by some far-from-profound fortune cookie discoveries (‘Happiness is being loved for who you are’, ‘Avoiding the road to unhappiness is not the road to happiness’ etc) that are duly noted down in Hector’s journal and scribbled on screen. There are infrequent animated sequences, often enterprisingly used to save the costs of expensive, live-action moments.

Cinematographer Kolja Brandt ensures a handsomelooking production and veteran director Peter Chelsom (Shall We Dance?) confidently steers the narrative through shifting gears of tear-stained whimsy, hearttugging emotion, comic slapstick and even gritty jeopardy when Hector is kidnapped in Africa.

Pegg is on screen in every scene, with an underused Pike’s long-suffering Clara often confined to the other side of brief Skype conversations. Pegg handles the dry verbal humour and physical comedy with ease but also creates a fully rounded portrait of an emotionally squeamish man who has been far too afraid of living for far too long.

There is a subtle sense of restraint in all aspects of his performance, from the barely suppressed rage at his self-indulgent clients to his giddy joy on discovering that it truly is a wonderful life. It is an impressive performance, suggesting Pegg has a wider range that has yet to be fully tapped.

Allan Hunter CONTACT BANKSIDE FILMS

www.bankside-films.com

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Jean-Pierre Améris is inspired by real-life events in this tale of a nun who cares for a deaf, mute and blind girl See page 60

Yury Bykov’s follow-up to critical hit The Major challenges corruption and hypocrisy in modern-day Russia See page 61

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Reviews in brief The Inbetweeners 2 Dirs/scr Damon Beesley, Iain Morris. UK. 2014.

96mins

Hilariously crude and unrepentantly rude, comedy sequel The Inbetweeners 2 is proving to be boxoffice gold in the UK, where its much-loved characters have a cult following. The film opened to more than $21m, the biggest debut of the year in the UK (2011 TV spin-off The Inbetweeners Movie took a staggering $67m at the UK box office and a further $20m internationally). This time round, pals Jay (James Buckley), Neil (Blake Harrison), Will (Simon Bird) and Simon (Joe Thomas) head off to Australia, which Jay claims is “the sex capital of the world”. Yes, it is rather British (what with the accents, clothes and class issues) but it is also laugh-out-loud funny with a smooth — if familiar — plot, nicely developed characters and a real determination to see through its very funny grossout moments to the level many US teen comedies may not have the courage to reach.

Roaring Currents

Mark Adams CONTACT ZODIAK RIGHTS

www.zodiakrights.com

Dir/scr Kim Han-min. S Kor. 2014. 128mins

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Dir Jonathan Liebesman. US. 2014. 101mins

Having broken almost every box-office record in its path, South Korean historical naval epic Roaring Currents, depicting the famous Battle of Myeongnyang in 1597 when Admiral Yi Sun-shin led 12 boats to victory against a Japanese fleet consisting of more than 300 vessels, has been a gargantuan hit with local audiences, generating a whopping $64.3m in its first 10 days. But given the film’s nationalistic tone and its many caricatures, it is unlikely to resonate as well with international audiences who will be largely unfamiliar with the Korean legend.

The film’s extraordinary success at home — it attracted more than 3.3 million viewers ($25.8m) on its opening weekend, crushing a record held by Transformers: Dark Of The Moon (2.3 million admissions; $22.4m) — is in part due to Roaring Currents’ portrayal of national hero Yi as well as the battle itself. But modern-day circumstances, such as the poor diplomatic relations between Japan and Korea, have perhaps been a factor in how audiences have responded to the naval epic.

The film, which goes on release in North America under the title The Admiral: Roaring Currents through CJ E&M America, will likely have a more difficult time finding an international audience, but Choi Min-sik’s leading presence — he is experiencing US success with Luc Besson’s Lucy — should aid in raising awareness.

The story is set in the sixth year of the Imjin War between Korea’s Joseon Dynasty and Japan, as Japanese forces are advancing by land and sea towards the Joseon capital. Amid a fractious political climate, Admiral Yi (Choi) is wrongly impeached and tortured

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following a plot by Japanese double agents, but is hastily reinstated after an incompetent naval commander squanders much of the Joseon navy’s might through ill-conceived tactics.

Left with 12 ships at his command, Yi leads his fleet against a Japanese armada of some 330 vessels headed

by General Kurushima (Ryu Seung-ryong). The battle, which takes place in the Myeongnyang strait off the southwest point of the Korean peninsula, is dictated more by intelligent tactics than by firepower.

Director Kim Han-min, whose credits include period-action box-office hit War Of The Arrows (2011), spends an hour setting the stage for the battle without any meaningful development in either the plot or the characterisations, but the second half kicks into gear when the cannons fire and Yi’s ingenious tactics are given the big-screen treatment. The overstated costumes of the Japanese leadership, and the almost cartoonish portrayal of these characters, however, only reinforce the film’s overly patriotic narrative.

One of Korea’s most prolific actors, Choi (Oldboy) does not necessarily do anything wrong playing the legendary admiral, but his presence feels surprisingly underwhelming, at least compared to his more iconic roles. The same can be said of Ryu (The Target), who is capable of delivering significantly more as the Japanese general, but ultimately plays very much a supporting role.

Jason Bechervaise

Impersonal and derivative, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboots the titular reptiles under Liebesman (Battle: Los Angeles), though the film’s slick, disposable soul seems imported from producer Michael Bay, whose Transformers franchise trademarked the sort of lumbering action and juvenile humour that’s on full display here. Based on the 1980s comic book, the film quickly establishes the backstory of its iconic characters, Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo, as they battle the evil Shredder and his Foot Clan. Turtles had a US debut of $65.6m.

Tim Grierson CONTACT PARAMOUNT PICTURES

Into The Storm Dir Steven Quale. US. 2014. 89mins

The success of Jan de Bont’s 1996 hit Twister set the bar pretty high when it come to weather-orientated disaster movies, and while the next-generation CGI storms are mesmerisingly impressive, it is when the dialogue is brought into play that Into The Storm flounders. Main leads Richard Armitage, Matt Walsh and Sarah Wayne Callies take it all suitably seriously, but their characters are thinly drawn. Without being too crass, it reminds you how great were the effects and story in Twister.

The film blew out to an unremarkable $17.3m opening in North America.

Mark Adams

CONTACT CJ ENTERTAINMENT www.cj-entertainment.com

CONTACT WARNER BROS

August-September 2014 Screen International 59

»

REVIEWS

Locarno Reviews in brief Tour De Force Dir Christian Zübert. Ger. 2014. 95mins

As a self-aware and astutely manipulative tearjerker, Zübert’s Tour De Force (Hin Und Weg) presses all the right emotional buttons as it combines the ‘incurable disease’ and ‘road trip’ genres to good effect but without much that is original or insightful. The performances are engaging and it is nicely shot, though some of the plot devices do not always convince. Director Zübert — who made the comedy Three Quarter Moon — is aiming for a blend of tragic comedy, as the familiar story sees old friends on their annual get together rocked to find out one of their number has a terminal illness.

Mark Adams CONTACT BETA CINEMA

www.betacinema.com

Love Island Dir Jasmila Zbanic. Bos & Herz-Cro-Ger-Switz.

2014. 90mins

Zbanic is letting her hair down, taking a break from the nightmarish memories of the Balkan war which were — up until now — her chief concern, and instead coming up with a rather tame romantic sex comedy set at a summer resort on a Croatian island. Reminiscent of the lightweight fare that was once produced in this part of the world — decorated with the gaudy economy luxuries of modern package tourism while basking in the beachside spectacle of the Dalmatian coast — this Locarno premiere should be a lucrative proposition for the central European market, though is probably not frenetic, sophisticated or frantic enough for the rest of the world. So chaste and unpretentious to be safe for all ages, Love Island looks like the kind of entertainment the doctor ordered for Zbanic after the stress of her previous films.

Dan Fainaru CONTACT THE MATCH FACTORY www.the-match-factory.com

Cure — The Life Of Another Dir Andrea Staka. Switz-Cro-Bos & Herz. 83mins

Staka’s enigmatic and artistically complex film is in the end all about interpretation… both how the characters interpret the actions of those around them and how the audience interprets what they see on screen. There are striking images, thoughtful performances and a gentle delve into politics, but in the end Cure — The Life Of Another may be too obtuse to match the Locarno success of the director’s debut feature Fraulein, which won the Golden Leopard in 2006. A dramatic incident is used as the jumping off point for a story of guilt and confusion, set against the backdrop of Dubrovnik during the Balkan war. But what gives the film its heart is the striking debut performance by Sylvie Marinkovic, who was just 14 when the film was shot.

Mark Adams CONTACT OKOFILM PRODUCTIONS www.okofilm.com

60 Screen International August-September 2014

Locarno film festival

Marie’s Story Dir/scr Jean-Pierre Améris. Fr. 2014. 95mins

Romantics Anonymous director Jean-Pierre Améris’ new film reads like a softer, religious version of The Miracle Worker and while never attempting to match Arthur Penn’s dramatic punch, Améris takes a more pastoral, less methodical approach. He relies on the performances of Isabelle Carré and young newcomer Ariana Rivoire, whom he found in an institute for the deaf, where she was still enrolled while shooting the film.

Marie’s Story (Marie Heurtin) is inspired as much by the tale of Marie Heurtin, a 10-year-old deaf, mute and blind girl educated at the Larnay Institute near Poitiers, France, at the end of the 19th century as by the similar, but far better known, case of Helen Keller.

The Larnay Institute, at that time a religious convent run by the Sisters of Wisdom nuns, was dedicated to the education of deaf and mute children, but when Heurtin’s parents brought their daughter Marie (Rivoire) she was first turned down since her blindness prevented the use of sign language and there seemed to be no other way to communicate.

Thanks to the insistence of Sister Marguerite (Carré), who volunteered to dedicate herself exclusively to Marie, and the faith she deployed despite the repeated failures of her early efforts to break through the barriers separating them, Marie was not only accepted but, in the course of time and after many setbacks, became fully conversant in sign language, mastered the Braille alphabet, learned to use a typewriter, to play dominoes, to sew, knit and eventually grow into a self-sufficient young woman.

Though a graphic portrait of the method used by Sister Marguerite was published over a hundred years ago

by Louis Arnould in a book entitled A Soul In Prison, Améris prefers to dwell on a single, significant stage in the process, teaching the pupil to use sign language. For the rest, the script prefers to imply that it is only through painstaking patience, utter devotion and an enormous amount of faith that Sister Marguerite, despite her own poor health, finally broke through the wall of silence separating Marie from the rest of the world.

The first part is almost irritatingly familiar in its account of miracles that remain a bit too intangible for comfort, but once these events are satisfactorily established, Améris is more comfortable dealing with Marie’s growing attachment to her tutor, the crisis erupting when Sister Marguerite is sent to the mountains without Marie’s prior knowledge, and in the later stages when the girl has to accept the concept of death.

Carré — who has acted before for Améris — and Rivoire, who bravely holds her own against her experienced partner, finally have a chance to shine in the film’s later stages after giving up their wrestling contests that fill many of the film’s early scenes.

Bound to be tagged an inspirational tale of unfaltering faith and a serious candidate for every ecumenical prize in sight, there is only one question that remains unanswered after the final credits: what is the meaning of the Jewish folk music played at the end over a visit to a Catholic cemetery? Is this a mystic message that needs to be unravelled?

Dan Fainaru CONTACT INDIE SALES

neschbach@indiesales.eu

www.screendaily.com

Locarno Reviews in brief Fidelio — Alice’s Journey Dir Lucie Borleteau. Fr. 2014. 95mins

Sending a woman around the world to find her anchor may be a nice concept, but the script of Borleteau’s debut feature lacks the necessary structure to sustain it through or lead it to safe harbour, despite star Ariane Labed’s impressively uninhibited performance. Her lusty heroine is a sailor — in the traditionally male-dominated role as second mechanic on a freighter — whose travels are supposed to invite deeper reflections on such weighty matters as the meaning of life, love and sex. Ultimately, however, they do nothing of the kind and by the time the film is over, one is entitled to wonder to what extent she had actually been affected by her experiences.

Dan Fainaru CONTACT Marine Arrighi de Casanova m.arrighi@apsarafilms.fr Nicolas Livecchi nicolas@whynotproductions.fr

August Winds Dir Gabriel Mascaro. Bra. 2014. 77mins

Locarno film festival

The Fool Dir/scr Yury Bykov. Russ. 2014. 116mins

An astute and highly watchable story of an honest man who makes the ‘foolish’ mistake of trying to change the mindset of a system of corrupt bureaucrats, Yury Bykov’s The Fool (Durak) is a wonderfully constructed film that takes a subtle-yet-angry swipe at the state of modern Russia.

Following on from the critical success of The Major, which premiered in Critics’ Week in Cannes 2013, Bykov is a talent to watch, with The Fool likely to be a must-have on the festival circuit (it saw its world premiere at Locarno Film Festival).

While at heart a gloomy and oddly static film — only a few dark and dour locations are used — The Fool moves at a breezy pace that belies its 116-minute running time, driven by an indignantly open performance

by Artem Bystrov as an honest man whose only mistake is to let his integrity bubble to the surface.

Bystrov’s performance is balanced beautifully by Nataliya Surkova’s wonderful turn as the town mayor, whose need to protect herself and her corrupt lackeys outweighs everything.

Dima Nikitin (Bystrov) is a simple and honest plumber who works in a small Russian town. He refuses to be involved with bribery as a means to progress — much to the annoyance of his mother — instead preferring to study for his exams. One night the pipes burst in a nearby housing block that is occupied by drunkards and outcasts, with Nikitin realising that cracks in the crumbling tenement could see it collapse overnight.

He sets about gatecrashing a party where all of the

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local bigwigs — including the mayor and heads of police, fire and building services — are wallowing in wine and food. The mayor (Surkova) takes his comments seriously, but realises that after all the kickbacks and corruption, she has nowhere to house the hundreds of residents were they to be evacuated into the bleak winter. Nikitin naively tries to push against the red tape but has little idea how deep the corruption runs and how self protection comes way ahead of the notion of saving the lives of ordinary people.

Nikitin’s night-long odyssey to fight an entire system of bureaucrats is the mission of a good man, but he is dubbed a fool by those he comes into contact with — bureaucrats and block dwellers alike — even though he acts with the most honourable of intentions. It is a striking and powerful film, blessed with a series of fine performances that reel in the clichés and tell a stark and often brutal story.

The Fool, a clear attack on Russia’s housing system and the need for much-needed upkeep, is a dark and ultimately painful journey, but it is always intriguing and entertaining as it raises the big issues.

As Bykov has commented: “Such people are very rare today. We call them romantic, altruistic, idealistic or simply ‘fools’ to stress that they do not act normally in a time when cynicism, fear and indifference have become the norm. Such ‘fools’ still exist in my country, and it gives hope.”

Mark Adams CONTACT ROCK FILMS

aylarova@gmail.com

An engagingly episodic and beautiful drama, Mascaro’s August Winds (Ventos De Agosto) is a slight but bewitching film that dwells on life and death, all set against the stunning backdrop of a Brazilian coastal town as it prepares to be battered by tropical storms. Shot with lingering, slow takes rather than presenting a linear story, the series of snapshots glimpse into this idyllic, though poor, village community. The sea and the land are interlinked as the elements come into play and have a gently profound impact on the people. The simple nature of life and death, youth and age (as one character says: “Life is beautiful when you’re young, but it’s cruel when you’re old”) and the sea and the land are gently contemplated in the film, juxtaposed with the artfully constructed images.

Mark Adams CONTACT FIGA

contact@figafilms.com

A Hitman’s Solitude Before The Shot Dir Florian Mischa Boder. Ger. 2014. 86mins

Though blessedly short and breezy and despite the fact elements of this Bourne pastiche are genuinely amusing, the lumberingly titled A Hitman’s Solitude Before The Shot (Die Einsamkeit Des Killers Vor Dem Schuss) is a one-joke story that just cannot quite sustain a full-length feature. It isn’t for the lack of trying. Certainly Benno Fürmann is excellent as the overly ambitious, square-jawed and mustachioed Koralnik, recruited as a contract killer for a secret EU programme, while Mavie Hörbiger is charmingly feisty as a woman caught up in events. It is simply that there are times when this feels more like an extended television skit rather than a big-screen endeavour. Broadcasters could well embrace the Euro-sensibility and its sense of humour may appeal to other festivals.

Mark Adams CONTACT PICTURE TREE INTERNATIONAL pti@picturetree-international.com

August-September 2014 Screen International 61

Pathé Productions Limited, British Broadcasting Corporation and the British Film Institute 2014. All rights reserved. ©

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SCREENTECH ■ FESTIVAL SCOPE’S VENICE SALA WEB

producers when trying the public-facing Sala Web. Raja says: “The rights holders know and trust Festival Scope and they know it’s very secure.”

The goal is to raise the profile of the films and connect them with audiences worldwide. “The idea from the festival is not to sell more tickets to make more money, it’s more about helping the films with visibility,” Henrot says.

That visibility is mostly among the public but the system can also aid industry executives, festival programmers and critics who are not in Venice but want to stay on top of the films.

Promotion is done via Venice’s official channels (tickets are sold at labiennale. org) and social-media promotion is conducted directly by Festival Scope.

La Vita Oscena

The virtual festival Festival Scope founders Mathilde Henrot and Alessandro Raja tell Wendy Mitchell about the third edition of Venice VoD platform Sala Web

F

rom the lido… to the living room. Venice Film Festival’s Sala Web initiative returns this year for its third edition, again delivered by Festival Scope.

Sala Web (web theatre) offers selected films from the festival’s Orizzonti and Biennale College sections in a ‘virtual’ online cinema.

Venice is not the only festival in this game of course, with among others Rotterdam offering its IFFR Live and Tribeca partnering on VoD launches for some of its selections. But what makes Venice’s offering unique is that it is available globally, concurrent to festival premieres, and in limited numbers just like an actual screening room. There are 800 tickets sold for each film — 400 in Italy (on MyMovies.it) and 400 internationally. Each ‘ticket’ costs $5.35 (¤4).

The films can be streamed at the same time as they are presented on the Lido, but the viewing period has been extended this year to within five days.

Venice festival director Alberto Barbera says: “We are very pleased with the continuing success of our web theatre.

The purpose of this important extension on the internet is to give increased impact to the festival’s promotional activity around the world to support new films, and in particular young auteurs, taking full advantage of the opportunities offered by modern web technology.”

Festival Scope co-founder and CEO Alessandro Raja notes that the idea

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‘The idea from the festival is not to sell more tickets to make more money, it’s about helping the films with visibility’ Mathilde Henrot, Festival Scope, pictured left with Alessandro Raja

started with Barbera. “It was Alberto’s idea to create additional screenings. The main goal was to create more visibility for these films. They can be in the shadow of the main competition, so it’s important for these films to be watched and noticed not only by professionals but by the public as well.”

Festival Scope’s other co-founder Mathilde Henrot, like Raja a sales veteran, adds: “It’s a limited number of seats, it starts at the same time as in Venice, it’s more like a happening.”

Many of the viewers tend to start the stream at 9pm Italian time, alongside the premiere. “They don’t wait to do it in their own time. It’s funny how people keep these same habits,” she says.

But the five-day timeframe gives viewers more flexibility while still retaining the feel of an exclusive “event”, Henrot says.

Ticket sales figures for the scheme are not released but Henrot says ticket sales jumped from the first to second year.

“It’s a matter of promotion — when we

increase the promotion we increase the sales,” Raja adds. “This year should be even better.”

Because of the festival’s profile in Italy, a lot of viewers are Italian, but otherwise “it really is spread all over the world”, Henrot says. A film can see a spike in viewers from its country of origin.

Festival Scope is well known as an industry-facing platform (partnering with more than 100 film festivals, events and organisations each year) and that helps to reassure sales companies and

Data point As well as reaching 800 extra viewers, Sala Web can be a useful data tool. “People who participate understand the value of organising these international ‘desk’ screenings. It’s interesting to see where the tickets are sold, it’s interesting to know if people pause the films… It offers unique information for the film-makers, they really understand the promotional value of the initiative, and as a test screening,” Raja says.

Of last year’s offerings, he notes that Biennale College project Memphis was later acquired by Kino Lorber for the US. Of course, he recognises that deal was not completed just because of Sala Web, but the online offering cannot hurt. “It’s good to see that films playing on Sala Web have a good response from the market and a good distribution afterwards.

“Some festivals worry that people might watch online and not go to cinemas,” Raja continues. “I don’t think this is a good argument. Most festivals have screening rooms that are packed; you go to festivals to meet people and have a social experience rather than just watching the film.

“Festivals are exploring options for online screenings, and we’re happy to s discuss possible solutions.” ■

VENICE SALA WEB 2014 SELECTIONS ■ Blood

Cells Dirs Joseph Bull, Luke Seomore ■ Bypass Dir Duane Hopkins ■ Court Dir Chaitanya Tamhane ■ H. Dir Rania Attieh, Daniel Garcia ■ Io Sto Con La Sposa Dirs Antonio Augugliaro, Gabriele Del Grande, Khaled Soliman Al Nassiry

■ Line

Of Credit Dir Salomé Alexi

■ Nabat Dir Elchin Musaoglu ■ The

President Dir Mohsen Makhmalbaf ■ Short Skin Dir Duccio Chiarini ■ These Are The Rules Dir Ognjen Svilicic ■ La Vita Oscena Dir Renato De Maria

August-September 2014 Screen International 63

ASK THE EXPERTS

We ask festival regulars…

‘What is your favourite Toronto memory?’

We’d just finished Sexy Beast and Jeremy Thomas invited me to the world premiere in 2000. At the press conference, a journalist made a Gandhi reference and Ben Kingsley suddenly went into character as the ferocious Don Logan.

He shocked and seduced everyone in the room. It was electrifying!

Ben Kingsley as Don Logan in Sexy Beast

In 2011, our French genre movie Sleepless Night had its world premiere in Midnight Madness. We managed to get an earlier screening for buyers but I was devastated when I didn’t recognise a single face.

Just as I was about to explain the ‘failure’ to the director, my phone began to ring and ring. All the key buyers and studios were interested and the film sold worldwide. Those unknown faces were bloggers who quickly spread the word that the film was destined to be a hit.

Gilles Souza head of sales,

Bac Films

Alexandra Stone producer, Creative Management and Productions

Watching Dallas Buyers Club, Prisoners, Silver Linings Playbook, Argo, The Attack, Omar, End Of Watch… only to recall the last two years. I religiously attend the early morning P&I screenings. Most days, I stumble on a film I find truly exceptional and get introduced to incredible talent. You stay classy, Toronto. I love you dearly.

Harold Van Lier

president, eOne Films International

The Bata Shoe Museum

When the festival was based near Bloor Street, my hotel room faced the music school, and I would wake every morning to the magical sound of students practising. Since the move downtown, I’m close to my favourite Indian restaurants on Queen Street, the historic St Lawrence Market, and can walk to the Art Gallery of Toronto.

I also discovered one of the most unique and girl-friendly museums in the world, The Bata Shoe Museum!”

Alyson Dewar president, PR Works

FRED TSUI general manager, Media Asia Film

Sleepless Night

64 Screen International August-September 2014

Some 10 years ago, we were sitting in posh haunt Susur after our gala screening. Despite being exhausted, our director didn’t want to go to bed. Instead he took a nap at the table while everyone else was eating, which drew a crowd. The morning after, when he saw me at breakfast, he asked why he hadn’t seen me at dinner!

Dallas Buyers Club

Proposing my longheld theory about Brazil to Terry Gilliam (right) when talking to him at a party, and then watching him nod his head, smile, and say: “Nope.”

Andrew Frank vice-president, sales and acquisitions, Mongrel Media

www.screendaily.com

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If you’d like to learn more about Talent Lab, or our year-round professional development programmes, visit tiff.net/industry today.

Congratulations to this year’s Labbers: Danilo Baracho, Canada Joan Chemla, France Andrew Cividino, Canada Mattie Do, Laos Geneviève Dulude-De Celles, Canada Deanne Foley, Canada Alireza Khatami, Iran

PRESENTING SPONSOR

Aneta Kopacz, Poland Dea Kulumbegashvili, Georgia Mohamed Siam Mahmoud, Egypt Maxwell McCabe-Lokos, Canada Kate Melville, Canada Elisia Mirabelli, Canada Fabio Mollo, Italy

Dylan Reibling, Canada Benjamin Schuetze, Canada Rémi St-Michel, Canada Marietta von Hausswolff von Baumgarten, Sweden Tomasz Wasilewski, Poland Vera Sölvadóttir, Iceland

SUPPORTED BY

Special Thanks to The Slaight Family Foundation

10,000 FILMS HAVE BEEN LAUNCHED AT AFM 速

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